Dominic Raab’s attempts to justify the UK’s meagre refugee scheme for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion went down like a lead balloon on Tuesday.
Downing Street announced on Monday that new visa rules would welcome 100,000 Ukrainians – meaning British nationals and Ukrainians settled in the UK could bring “dependent” family members to Britain.
But, home secretary Priti Patel alleged that “security” concerns for the UK “homeland” prohibited more generous action.
The news followed a prediction from the UN that around 500,000 Ukrainians had already fled their home country in the five days since Russia invaded.
Approximately 281,000 people have fled to Poland, more than 84,500 to Hungary, about 36,400 are now residing in Moldova, more than 32,500 in Romania and around 30,000 in Slovakia.
Reporting live from the targeted Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Sky News’ Mark Austin asked the deputy prime minister to defend the highly-criticised scheme.
He said: “How does a 75-year-old woman living with sirens going off, living in a basement, get to her son who is living in London – can she do that?
“Because, I can’t see how she does.
“How does she go to Lviv [western Ukrainian city] 11 hours drive away and get a visa – it just doesn’t make sense.”
“This is a consistent feature whenever we have humanitarian asylum schemes set up,” Raab replied.
“We know that the difficulties on the ground make it practically very challenging, but we also know that many will get out of Ukraine, those that are fleeing through fear, and we need to be ready with our international partners, the Europeans.”
In the UK, unless a Ukrainian has direct relations to someone in Britain, the complex points-based system still applies just as it did prior to Russia’s invasion.
Everyone without a family connection will be denied entry under the current rules.
Austin pointed out that the UK could echo the EU’s policy and accept all Ukrainians even without a visa for up to three years instead.
He asked: “Why are we not doing more?”
The cabinet minister replied: “I can’t comment on every potential hypothetical case. What I’ve just set out is the circumstances and, of course, we understand the difficulties of the practicalities on the ground that’s common to most conflict zones, we recognise that.”
Raab continued: “In relation to the Europeans, of course, they’re closer to Ukraine, and as the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK said over the weekend, it will often be the case where the first priority is that most Ukrainians will want to stay in Ukraine.
“If they leave they will want to be as close to their home country as possible in order to be able to come back at some point in the future.”
Clearly frustrated and speaking over the sirens in the background, Austin replied: “This woman wants to go to her son in London she doesn’t want to go to Poland.”
Raab just said that this route was “technically open”, although he admitted: “It’s very difficult to know how she would traverse the country at that age, but that is the offer the home secretary has made.”
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Raab repeated his claim said that the UK is not being as welcoming as the EU because these countries are “closer to Ukraine” and that’s where they will want to go.
“That is a common factor and feature of refugee crises around the world.”
However, there has been significant backlash to the scheme already, with former Tory leader William Hague calling on No.10 to let more Ukrainians seek refuge here.
There’s been widespread fury on Twitter too.