Boris Johnson has caused confusion over the UK’s stance on Ukrainian refugees by denying the government has plans to set up a new visa route, just a day after Priti Patel said one was being set up.
The Prime Minister also cast doubt on Home Office figures which showed that so far only 50 people fleeing the war in Ukraine had been given visas to live in the UK.
The government has announced that Ukrainians in the UK will be able to bring family members from their home country and in addition British people and companies will be able to sponsor Ukrainian refugees.
On Sunday, the Home Secretary suggested the government was prepared to go further.
But with criticism that other countries are doing far more than the UK, Johnson insisted he would not introduce a system allowing Ukrainian refugees to come to the UK “without any checks or any controls at all”.
Asked if the Government was considering a “third route” to the UK, not based on family members or sponsorship, Johnson told reporters: “What we won’t do, and let me be very clear, is have a system where people can come into the UK without any checks or any controls at all, I don’t think that is the right approach. But what we will do is have a system that is very, very generous.”
“As the situation in Ukraine deteriorates, people are going to want to see this country open our arms to people fleeing persecution, fleeing a warzone.”
“I think people who have spare rooms, who want to receive people coming from Ukraine, will want us to have a system that enables them to do that. And that is already happening.”
Nicola Sturgeon is among those pressing the UK to go further.
The First Minister said: “Having people fleeing the terror in Ukraine, spending hours and hours and hours on arduous journeys, then having to jump through bureaucratic hoops is unconscionable.”
Johnson defended the visa routes on offer for Ukrainians seeking to flee the war zone.
The Prime Minister told reporters that “we’re processing thousands” of applications.
“Clearly this crisis, is evolving the whole time. I’ve said before that the UK will be as generous as we can possibly be and we intend to do that."
He added: “We have two very, very generous routes already – so the family reunion route, which is uncapped, which could potentially see hundreds of thousands of people come to this country, plus the humanitarian route.”
Downing Street said a “humanitarian route” for Ukrainian refugees reportedly being examined by the Home Secretary was in fact a sponsorship scheme that had already been announced by the Government.
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