According to a report in the Financial Times, Boris Johnson is pushing for Russia to be excluded from the Swift international payments system – a key Ukrainian demand, see 3.52pm – but meeting resistance from other countries, and particularly the EU. The FT (paywall) says:

Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, is pushing “very hard” for Russia to be ejected from the Swift international payments system, a move that would deliver a heavy blow to the country’s banks and its ability to trade beyond its borders.

However, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, warned Johnson on Thursday that his country would not support such a dramatic move and neither would the EU, according to officials close to sanctions negotiations. A German official declined to comment, saying only that “all options are still on the table”.

My colleague Jessica Elgot says No 10 sources are confirming that Johnson pushed for Russia to be excluded from Swift in the virtual G7 leaders’ meeting that has been taking place this afternoon.

As is often the case, the No 10 readout of the Johnson/Scholz call earlier makes a lot more once once the context has been explained. This is what a No 10 spokesperson said about the exchange.

The prime minister said that President Putin must fail and achieving that will require the western world to isolate him both politically and economically.

The prime minister welcomed Germany’s decision to suspend the Nord Stream 2 pipeline but said that allies must now make a concerted effort to bring the strongest possible sanctions to bear on the Putin regime.

The prime minister underscored that western inaction or underreaction would have unthinkable consequences. The leaders agreed to stay in close contact and to discuss our response further in this afternoon’s meeting of G7 leaders.

In his Mais lecture Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, argued that Britain has to have a strong economy to be able to defend its values around the world. He said:

Hope and opportunity should not just be the preserve of the citizens of the United Kingdom.

As the situation develops in Ukraine, this moment reveals something about the UK’s global role.

The basis of our influence in the world and ability to be a force for good is going to be in large part based on the strength of our economy.

That economic strength gives us the resources to both invest more in defence and come to the aid of countries that need our assistance.

It gives us the ability to increase the security of our energy supply, it gives us the diplomatic power to shape the rules of the international order, and when countries breach those rules: the weight to impose meaningful sanctions.

No nation has the right to lead, to a seat at the top table. It must be earned.

The full text of the speech is here. As my colleague Phillip Inman reports, Sunak was using his speech to stress his commitment to low taxes. But he also took a swipe at the “Laffer curve” Tories who argue that tax cuts frequently pay for themselves because they lead to the Treasury collecting more in revenue. (It is almost always Tories who make this argument, which is particularly popular with the rightwing commentariat.) Sunak said:

I firmly believe in lower taxes. The most powerful case for the dynamic market economy is that it brings economic freedom and prosperity. And the best expression of that freedom is for all of us to be able to make decisions about how to save, invest or use the money we earn. The marginal pound our country produces is far better spent by individuals and businesses than government.

So I am disheartened when I hear the flippant claim that ‘tax cuts always pay for themselves’. They do not. Cutting tax sustainably requires hard work, prioritisation, and the willingness to make difficult and often unpopular arguments elsewhere. And it is hard to cut taxes at a time when demands on the state are growing.

If it had not been for the invasion of Ukraine, today’s political news would have been dominated by the changes to post-18 education announced today. As Sally Weale reports in her preview, the government is asking students to start paying off student debt earlier (when their salaries reach a lower threshold) and for longer (remaining debts will be written off after 40 years, not 30 years as now). The official Department for Education news release about the plans is here. The DfE has also released two consultation documents: on access to university, to discourage students from taking poor quality courses that will bring them little benefit; and on plans for a lifelong loan entitlement, to pay for retraining.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published an analysis of the impact of the new student loan repayment rules. It says that students who go on to become high earners will gain from the changes while students who become low earners will lose, and that men will gain from the changes on average, while women will lose. It says:

As a percentage of lifetime earnings, the reform affects borrowers with lower middling earnings the most (yellow line). For them, the reform translates into a lifetime earnings loss of more than 1%, or more than a penny in each pound they will ever earn. However, these lower middling earners will still pay back around £9,000 less on average than the highest earners, so their student loans will still be subsidised by the taxpayer. Their losses relative to the current system arise because the taxpayer subsidy for these graduates will be substantially smaller under the new system than it is under the current system.

The reform package also entails substantial redistribution across genders: men stand to gain on average, whereas women are set to lose. On average, men will repay around £5,500 less towards their student loans under the new system, whereas women will pay £6,600 more. This is because women tend to spend more time out of work than men and on average earn less than men even when in work. As a result, men are much more likely to pay off their loans and benefit from lower interest rates.

Downing Street has said the UK is increasing its “air policing contribution” to Nato. The PM’s spokesman said:

We are increasing our air policing contribution to Nato from RAF Akrotiri and the UK to help protect our Nato allies. So, two typhoons and a voyager for refuelling from the UK will support continuous Nato air policing over Poland’s border with Ukraine … two typhoons and a voyager for refuelling from Akrotiri [will] also support continuous Nato air policing over Romania’s border with Ukraine.

So, this is a defensive capability designed to protect the airspace of our Nato allies … they will not operate in Ukrainian or Russian airspace.

Just to emphasise, this isn’t additional air support, this is the air support already committed to Nato doing additional activities.

In his own televised address Keir Starmer has called for an entirely new approach to dealing with President Putin following his invasion of Ukraine. Starmer said:

We must make a clean break with the failed approach to handling Putin, which after Georgia, Crimea and Donbas fed his belief that the benefits of aggression outweigh the cost. We must finally show him he is wrong.

That means doing all we can to help Ukraine defend herself, urgently reinforcing and reassuring our Nato allies in eastern Europe and the hardest possible sanctions must be taken against the Putin regime. It must be isolated, its finances frozen, its ability to function crippled …

This must be a turning point in our history. We must look back and say that this terrible day was actually when Putin doomed himself to defeat.

He seeks division, so we must stay united. He hopes for inaction, so we must take a stand. He believes that we are too corrupted to do the right thing, so we must prove him wrong. I believe we can, but only if we stand together.

Unlike Boris Johnson in his TV address (see 1.03pm), Starmer also insisted that the war would create “economic pain” for people in Britain. He said:

We must prepare ourselves for difficulties here. We will see economic pain as we free Europe from dependence on Russian gas and clean our institutions from money stolen from the Russian people. But the British public have always been willing to make sacrifice to defend democracy on our continent and we will again.

Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch and Chelsea FC owner, should have his assets in the UK seized, MPs have been told.

Speaking during business questions in the Commons, the Labour MP Chris Bryant said:

I have got hold of a leaked document from 2019 from the Home Office which says in relation to Mr Abramovich – ‘As part of HMG’s Russia strategy aimed at targeting illicit finance and malign activity, Abramovich remains of interest to HMG due to his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices. An example of this is Abramovich admitting in court proceedings that he paid for political influence. Therefore HMG is focused on ensuring individuals linked to illicit finance and malign activity are unable to base themselves in the UK and will use the relevant tools at its disposal, including immigration powers to prevent this.’

That is nearly three years ago and yet remarkably little has been done in relation. Surely Mr Abramovich should no longer be able to own a football club in this country? Surely we should be looking at seizing some of his assets including his £152m home? And making sure that other people who have had tier 1 visas like this are not engaged in malign activity?

In reply Mark Spencer, the leader of the Commons, said that the government would be taking “very strong action against high-profile Russian individuals who are of concern” and Bryant could raise his concerns directly with the home secretary during Home Office questions in the Commons next week.

Yesterday Boris Johnson published a clarification admitted that he was wrong to tell the Commons on Tuesday that Abramovich was already subjec to sanctions.

Asked about Bryant’s claims, the PM’s spokesman told journalists at the lobby briefing: “I couldn’t comment on individuals in that way or on leaked documents of that type.”

Boris Johnson used his TV address to the nation to eloquently express his outrage at the invasion of Ukraine, and his faith that in time democracy and freedom will prevail. “I don’t believe that the Russian dictator will ever subdue the national feeling of the Ukrainians and their passionate belief that their country should be free,” he said, in Churchillian tones. It is what you would expect, and these are words that almost all British politicians would endorse.

But was there anything else we gleaned from his comments? Here are takeaways.

1) Johnson has committed himself to the defeat of President Putin. “This hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure,” he said. This sounds like rhetoric, but it is an important policy objective.

2) But Johnson also implied that he expected the defeat of Putin to take a long time. There were a couple of points in the speech where he made this apparent.

Diplomatically, politically, economically – and eventually, militarily – this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure …

We will work with them – for however long it takes – to ensure that the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine is restored.

He seemed to be implying that it could take years, rather than weeks, for this to be resolved.

3) Johnson seems to have no intention of letting the UK response go beyond sanctions. The new measures would “hobble the Russian economy”, he said. But that won’t necessarily bring down President Putin (sanctions were applied against Iraq for more than a decade without leading to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein) and Johnson did not say they would. This helps to explain why he implied the crisis would not be over soon. Although he set the defeat of Putin as an end, he did not say clearly how this would be achieved – beyond hinting that it was up to the Ukrainians to see off the Russians. Johnson did not refer to British military intervention, but there was nothing in what he said to suggest that he is minded to back the ideas promoted by some of his MPs. (See 10.40am and 11.41am.)

4) Johnson was not willing acknowledge the negative impact the war is likely to have on people in Britain. This morning Tom Tugendhat, the Tory chair of the foreign affairs committee, said costs for consumers in this country would go up. (See 9.27am.) Even though the UK only gets a tiny proportion of its gas from Russia, sanctions are likely to lead to gas supplies to Europe being reduced, and it is hard to see how this would not have a knock-on effect on prices for the UK. As Tugendhat argued, the supply of other goods is likely to be affected too. But rather than acknowledge that Britons will pay a cost, Johnson just said: “We will of course do everything to keep our country safe.”

Here is the full text of Boris Johnson’s TV statement.

Shortly after 4 o’ clock this morning I spoke to President Zelenskiy of Ukraine to offer the continued support of the UK because our worst fears have now come true and all our warnings have proved tragically accurate.

President Putin of Russia has unleashed war in our European continent. He has attacked a friendly country without any provocation and without any credible excuse. Innumerable missiles and bombs have been raining down on an entirely innocent population A vast invasion is under way by land by sea and by air.

And this is not, in the infamous phrase, some faraway country of which we know little. We have Ukrainian friends in this country; neighbours, co-workers.

Ukraine is a country that for decades has enjoyed freedom and democracy and the right to choose its own destiny.

We – and the world – cannot allow that freedom just to be snuffed out. We cannot, and will not, just look away. It is because we have been so alarmed in recent months at the Russian intimidation that the UK became one of the first countries in Europe to send defensive weaponry to help the Ukrainians. Other allies have now done the same and we will do what more we can in the days ahead.

Today, in concert with our allies, we will agree a massive package of economic sanctions designed in time to hobble the Russian economy.

And to that end we must also collectively cease the dependence on Russian oil and gas that for too long has given Putin his grip on western politics.

Our mission is clear. Diplomatically, politically, economically – and eventually, militarily – this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure.

And so I say to the people of Russia, whose president has just authorised a tidal wave of violence against a fellow Slavic people, the parents of Russian soldiers who will lose their lives. I cannot believe this is being done in your name or that you really want the pariah status it will bring to the Putin regime.

And I say to the Ukrainians – in this moment of agony we are with you we are praying for you and your families and we are on your side.

And if the months ahead are grim, and the flame of freedom burns low, I know that it will blaze bright again in Ukraine because, for all his bombs and tanks and missiles, I don’t believe that the Russian dictator will ever subdue the national feeling of the Ukrainians and their passionate belief that their country should be free.

And I say to the British people, and all who have heard the threats from Putin against those who stand with Ukraine, we will of course do everything to keep our country safe.

We are joined in our outrage by friends and allies around the world. We will work with them – for however long it takes – to ensure that the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine is restored because this act of wanton and reckless aggression is an attack not just on Ukraine. It is an attack on democracy and freedom in east Europe and around the world. This crisis is about the right of a free, sovereign independent European people to choose their own future and that is a right that the UK will always defend.

Johnson says the UK will respond with “a massive package of sanctions” that will “hobble the Russian economy”.

Ukraine is a country that for decades has enjoyed freedom and democracy and the right to choose its own destiny. We and the world cannot allow that freedom just to be snuffed out. We cannot and will not just look away …

Today, in concert with our allies, we will agree a massive package of economic sanctions designed in time to hobble the Russian economy.

And to that end, we must also collectively cease the dependence on Russian oil and gas that for too long has given Putin his grip on western politics.

Our mission is clear; diplomatically politically, economically, and eventually, military, this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure.

Johnson is due to deliver a televised statement from No 10 about the Russian invasion of Ukraine at noon.

He has already said he is “appalled” by what is happening and his skills as a wordsmith are likely to be on full display as he expands on why he feels this is such a calamitous moment for Europe. He is also expected to confirm that the UK will respond with “overwhelming sanctions” (see 9.48am), but the details are not expected to come until this afternoon.