Afternoon summary
- Boris Johnson has announced a series of sanctions against Russia, imposing asset freezes on five major Russian banks and three high net worth individuals. But, as he took questions on his proposals from MPs for an hour and a half, many Tory and opposition MPs complained that his measures did not go far enough. (See 2.37pm.) Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, later said that subsequent sanctions might go “much further” (see 4.20pm) and in a separate debate James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister, said the government would tighten sanctions even if President Putin did not step up the attack against Ukraine. (See 5.15pm.)
That is all from me for today. But our coverage of the Ukraine crisis continues in our global blog. It’s here.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, was responding to James Cleverly in the sanctions debate on behalf of Labour. Keir Starmer told MPs earlier that the sanctions announced today did not go far enough (see 2.37pm), but Lammy was more explicit about this. He said that the government sanctions package was “too limited and too partial” and he said Labour would be pushing for a more comprehensive package. He said the EU was imposing sanctions on 27 Russian individuals, while the UK was targeting just three people.
