Further hundred thousand Ukrainian refugees will be able to seek sanctuary in UK, Priti Patel announces

The Home Secretary announced that salary thresholds and other requirements have been altered so that people fleeing Putin’s invasion “can be supported”, as she said that the family visa route would mean many more can settle here.

She told MPs she was following the “strongest security advice” as she rejected the call to scrap the need for visas.

“Over the weekend I have seen members of this House calling for full visa waivers for all Ukrainians,” Ms Patel said.

“Security and biometric checks are a fundamental part of our visa approval process worldwide and will continue, as they did for the evacuation of people from Afghanistan."

Further sanctions on Russia were also announced this afternoon, as the Foreign Office advised against all travel to the country following the incursion into neighbouring Ukraine.

Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, Ms Patel said: “Putin’s war on Ukraine is monstrous and unjustified.”

She added: “I can confirm that an additional 100,000 Ukrainians will be able to seek sanctuary in the UK, with access to work and public services.

“We are enabling Ukrainian nationals already in the UK, giving them the ability to switch free of charge into a points-based immigration route or through the family visa route.

“We are extending visas for (Ukraine) temporary workers in some sectors and they can now stay until at least December 2022.”

There have been concerns that the UK rules were not allowing Ukrainians with family in the UK to be reunited.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also appeared in the Commons this afternoon, announcing new sanctions on Russian banks to continue piling pressure on the regime.

She said all Russian banks would be hit with a full asset freeze within days as she announced new powers to limit them from clearing payments in sterling, which will initially target the nation’s largest bank, Sberbank.

Ms Truss also warned the war could last “months and years” as she prepared the British public for “some economic hardship” as a result of the sanctions, but vowed to Ukraine that the UK would “suffer economic sacrifices to support you, however long it takes”.