Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is not lifting sanctions on Russian oil “in any way whatsoever”.
The Prime Minister said the “strong new package” of sanctions announced on Tuesday go “well beyond” existing measures.
A trade licence which allows for the import of jet fuel and diesel refined in third countries amid surging costs due to the Iran war came into effect on Wednesday.
It has been heavily criticised by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch who said it is “insane” to water down sanctions when the UK Government is refusing to fully exploit North Sea resources.
The Labour chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Dame Emily Thornberry, also criticised the move.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been fighting a war bravely against Russia for years and years with our support.
“They have looked to Britain as one of their most important allies, and they don’t understand, given that we promised that we would stop this loophole in October, and we still haven’t done it. In fact, it seems to have got worse. People feel very let down.”
The sanctions were imposed as part of measures targeting Vladimir Putin’s economy after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A trade licence permits the imports “indefinitely”.
After 18 months of “standing up to Putin” the Labour govt quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries.
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) May 20, 2026
Yesterday Labour MPs voted AGAINST UK oil and gas licences.
We are now importing from Russia instead of drilling in the North Sea.… https://t.co/UBOyWRRiEt
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs Badenoch accused the Government of having “snuck out an announcement that it was removing sanctions on Russian oil”.
Sir Keir replied: “Let me address the sanctions head-on, because we have been united across this House on these issues since the beginning of the conflict.
“What we announced yesterday was a strong new package of new sanctions going well beyond existing sanctions, so it is a new package. This includes new bans on maritime services on LNG and new bans on refined oil products from Russia.
“We also issued two targeted short-term licences to phase the new sanctions in and to protect UK consumers. That is standard practice.
“This Government has phased in sanctions in this way before and the last government used exactly the same technique when they introduced sanctions. And when they did so, we supported them, because we could see the sanctions were the right thing to do to bear down on Russia.
“So, these are new sanctions being phased in. This is not a question of lifting existing sanctions in any way whatsoever, and we will continue to work with our allies on further sanction packages.”
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