Russia is a rogue state, Sunak tells G20 leaders

PM attacks Putin over failure to attend Bali summit to explain his invasion of Ukraine

RISHI SUNAK today labels Russia a “rogue state” as he attacks Vladimir Putin for failing to defend his actions in Ukraine at the G20 summit in person.

The Prime Minister says that the Russian president’s no-show means that he is not even trying to explain his actions despite being “responsible for so much bloodshed in Ukraine”.

Writing for The Daily Telegraph for the first time since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Sunak outlines his tough stance on the Kremlin that will be put in the spotlight at the summit, which begins in Bali tomorrow.

It will be the first time a UK prime minister has met with Russian officials since the invasion in February, with Sergei Lavrov, the Kremlin’s foreign minister, attending in Putin’s place. Mr Sunak will use the summit’s first plenary session to confront Mr Lavrov about Russia’s “illegal” invasion, echoing the tough line of his predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

He writes: “We will not let our economic future be held hostage by the actions of a rogue state – and nor will our allies.”

He also says of Putin: “Leaders take responsibility. They show up. Yet, at the G20 Summit in Indonesia this week, one seat will remain vacant.

“The man who is responsible for so much bloodshed in Ukraine and economic strife around the world will not be there to face his peers.

“He won’t even attempt to explain his actions. Instead, he will stay at home and the rest of us will get on with the task at hand.

“Last week we saw the Ukrainian flag raised once again over Kherson, only weeks after Putin declared that the city would be part of Russia forever. It is a historic milestone in Ukraine’s fight to take back what’s theirs. They are standing up for fundamental principles that matter to us all – the principles of sovereignty and self-determination, which are the very foundations of a stable international order.

“But we know the Ukrainian people are still suffering terribly under the continued Russian bombardment and prolonged power blackouts in nearfreezing temperatures.

“That’s why when I spoke to President Zelensky last Thursday, I made clear that Britain will never back down when it comes to supporting the Ukrainian people in the face of this brutality,” Mr Sunak writes.

It is the first time that he has called Russia a “rogue state”, a label that was used by Liz Truss, his predecessor.

Mr Sunak referred to Putin as a “despot” while fighting last summer’s Tory leadership race.

“Rogue state” is not a phrase deployed by Joe Biden, the US president, with the White House instead referring to Russia as a “global pariah”. But it has been used by other Western leaders including Micheál Martin, the Irish premier, and Kaja Kallas, the Estonian prime minister.

Hopes are slim of getting a communiqué with any firm language about the Ukraine war agreed at the summit, given that every country needs to agree to the text and Russia is present.

Mr Sunak will also be pushing a fivepoint economic action plan for the G20 – a gathering of the world’s biggest economies – that will include reducing dependence on Russian oil and gas.

He will hold talks with Mr Biden, Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime min- ister, Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, and Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Arabian crown prince.

It will be the first time he has met Mr Biden, with Ukraine, free trade, energy security and the Northern Ireland Protocol all topics that may feature.

The conference will offer one of the first glimpses into Mr Sunak’s world view as leader, with his stance on many geopolitical issues little known. His past ministerial briefs have been in the Treasury and on local government matters.

‘The man who is responsible for so much bloodshed in Ukraine will not be there to face his peers’

ENERGY handouts are set to be targeted at pensioners and those on benefits after April as Jeremy Hunt seeks to cut the cost of the bailout.

One-off payments will be made to low-income and other vulnerable households when Liz Truss’s energy price cap ends next spring, to help them deal with sky-high bills.

Other households will receive no extra handouts on top of the protection given by a less generous price cap that comes into force in April. The current cap, announced by Ms Truss’s shortlived government, is set at £2,500 for a typical family, but the Chancellor is expected to announce that this will rise to as much as £3,100.

The plan will help reduce the cost of the energy bailout by two thirds, from £60billion over six months to £20billion.

But it could add £600 to the average bills of those not considered vulnerable enough to require extra handouts.

The confirmation that many pensioners would receive help with their energy bills follows indications that Mr Hunt is also planning to keep the pensions triple lock.

However, Mr Hunt is understood to be considering a stealth tax raid on pensions, with the pension lifetime allowance set to be frozen for another two years.

It came as a think tank warned older people will face the greatest income squeeze from surging energy costs this winter but young people will struggle most to afford their bills.

The Resolution Foundation’s Intergenerational Audit found that over-75s are expected to spend 8 per cent of their total household income on bills as they are more likely to live in larger and energy-inefficient homes.

Yesterday, Mr Hunt said he would unveil an energy plan in Thursday’s Autumn Statement which will include plans to increase our supply from renewable energy produced here rather than having to rely on Russian gas.

He said the measures would be “compassionate”, telling the BBC: “We’ll make sure that we protect the most vulnerable.

“And in particular deal with the single biggest worry for people on low incomes, which is the rising cost of their weekly shop and rising energy prices. Will we continue to support people? Yes, we will. Will it be uncapped, unlimited?

“We have to recognise that one of the reasons for the instability that followed the mini-budget was that people were worried that we were exposing British public finances to the volatility of the international gas market.”

In September, Ms Truss announced an energy price cap of £2,500 for a typical household; a scheme Mr Hunt has said will end in April.

The Chancellor is considering increasing the price cap to between £2,850 to £3,100 for the typical household.

It means that the typical household will still not be seeing bills of £4,000, which they would face with no cap. But the cap will be less generous than they were expecting. To help the most vulnerable, handouts will be paid on top. This is a return to the plan announced by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor, which was to give handouts to various groups depending on their level of need. Groups included those on benefits, low-income pensioners and people with disabilities.

On Thursday, Mr Hunt is expected to announce that broadly the same groups will receive the same sort of targeted help.

Asked if he had ditched the former prime minister’s plan, he said: “I think Boris was great at having a big vision for the future.

“There was sometimes an element of cakeism in what he announced, and so what we need to do is to make sure that we can deliver the high ambitions that he set out, which were absolutely right, with a practical, credible, affordable, deliverable policy.”