- A Labour MP proposed using Parliamentary privilege to expedite sanctions against Russian oligarchs.
- Chris Bryant named several Russian oligarchs and military leaders on the floor of the Commons.
- He urged Boris Johnson to bring sanctions against them "rapidly, today".
A Labour MP has used Parliamentary privilege to name several Russian oligarchs and military leaders that he believes should face immediate sanctions, calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to bring sanctions against them "today", Wednesday.
In a session of Prime Minister's Questions watched from the gallery by the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, Chris Bryant suggested legal barriers slowing down the introduction of sanctions against Russian individuals could be broken by naming them during Parliamentary proceedings.
Government officials are facing delays due to legal threats from "London law firms", Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said, as ministers seek to build their cases against individuals to be sanctioned.
But under Parliamentary privilege, legal cases cannot be brought against speeches made in Parliament. Bryant suggested this could allow ministers to bypass legal threats by naming oligarchs and alleged wrongdoing during Parliamentary proceedings, to then be cited by government officials working on sanctions.
Bryant praised former MPs who lost their lives "for plucky little Belgium" and Poland during the First and Second World Wars, but suggested Parliament were doing "nothing" in the current conflict.
"We're not guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Ukraine. We're not even sanctioning Sergei Shoygu, the Russian defence minister yet," Bryant said, "Nor Igor Osipov, the commander of the Black Sea fleet, or Usmanov, Chechin, Peskov, Abramovich, Roldugin, or the members of the Russian Duma who voted for this war."
Bryant has called previously for Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea FC, to face sanctions. Abramovich is reportedly looking to sell the club.
"Why don't we use Parliamentary privilege to get this out there, so the lawyers can't attack the sanctions that we must surely bring, rapidly, today?" he asked.
Bryant said in a debate yesterday that he would "be happy to sit in permanent session in Westminster Hall with ministers sending names and we will read them out."
Johnson told Bryant the UK government intends to go further by "tightening the vice on the Putin regime", but did not comment on the individuals being targeted.