The Royal Navy has not seized any sanctioned Russian tankers because the Government fears it would breach international law following legal advice from Lord Hermer, making a mockery of Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to “go after” the ships. The Telegraph has the story.

Vladimir Putin’s shadow fleet has been allowed to pass through the English Channel despite Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge, a fortnight ago, to “go after” the ships.

Since the Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that Putin had sent a warship to escort sanctioned vessels through the Channel, there have been mounting questions over the Government’s failure to stop Russian ships.

Now it can be revealed that Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, has given legal advice about how the ships could be tackled in British territorial waters to prevent the flow of sanctioned oil to Russia’s allies.

Under his advice, ships can be boarded by special forces and officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA), but no such operations have taken place because of concerns about breaching international maritime law, which sets a high legal bar for a state to board a foreign vessel.

Officials must present a legal case for each operation, which is known under international law as an “interdiction”, and prove that the vessel has evaded British sanctions.

Putin sent three more vessels through the Channel on Thursday, hours after John Healey, the Defence Secretary, revealed that Russia had run a secret submarine operation in British waters that threatened vital energy and data cables.

It also emerged that one of the Russian vessels that crossed the Channel earlier this week was feared to be carrying supplies for Putin’s armed forces.

On Thursday, Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister, told the Telegraph that Sir Keir had to stop the shadow fleet and recover “some of the respect Britain has lost recently” over its military response to the war in the Middle East.

He said: “I think it’s pathetic. I don’t know why we don’t board these sanction-busting ships. They are fuelling Putin’s war machine and funding his slaughter of innocent Ukrainians and we have a golden opportunity to stop it.

“I think if we did, it would do a lot to recover some of the respect Britain has lost recently for our inability to defend our friends in the Gulf and use our bases in Cyprus.

“Putin is breaking the law – he knows he is, and he is laughing at us. It’s important to choke off Putin’s income. They need to restore a bit of pride in the British Armed Forces. This is not the fault of the Armed Forces – it’s the abysmal leadership of the Government.”

Worth reading in full.