THE HOME Office has been accused of mounting a 'chaotic' response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis after Priti Patel contradicted her own department's figures.

The Home Secretary said today that the revelation that only 50 visas had been approved from more than 5,000 applications was "absolutely inaccurate".

The figures came from her own department yesterday, however Ms Patel said that more than 14,000 people had applied to come to the UK via the Ukraine Family Scheme route today. 

She was also rebuffed by Downing Street after telling a newspaper that she was looking at setting up a third route for Ukrainians to come to the UK. 

Ms Patel was quoted as saying she was looking at another "humanitarian route", however No.10 said hours later that this was not the case. 

Currently Ukrainians who have family in the UK can apply to come for three years through the Family scheme, while another sponsorship scheme has been announced but is not yet operational.

Ms Patel was quoted as saying: “In response to the desperation I saw with my own eyes at the Polish border two days ago, I’m urgently escalating our response to the growing humanitarian crisis.

“I am now investigating the legal options to create a humanitarian route.
“This means anyone without ties to the UK fleeing the conflict in Ukraine will have a right to come to this nation.”

But later a Downing Street spokesman told reporters this was the “sponsorship route that we set out last week."

The Home Office could not confirm if it was drawing up additional measures for Ukrainians to come to the UK.

There has also been a row over the situation at Calais, after reports that some Ukrainians were turned away at the UK border.

However Ms Patel insisted there are British officials in Calais, and said a visa centre “en route” to Calais had been set up by the UK Government.

Moments later she then told MPs that it had not yet been set up and it was not ready to operate. 

 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “The Home Office is in a complete mess about this – they keep changing the rules, the stories of what is actually happening on the ground contradict what the Home Office say."