Theresa May expels 23 Russian diplomats over Salisbury spy attack as Moscow claims Britain has 'chosen confrontation'

The UK will expel 23 Russian diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers as part of its response to the Salisbury spy poisoning, Theresa May has said.

The Prime Minister set out a number of retaliatory measures against Moscow after she said that there was “no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable for the attempted murder” of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Mrs May said that no member of the Government will attend the World Cup which is due to start in Russia in June and that no member of the Royal family will attend either.

Meanwhile, Mrs May said that all planned high level contact between the UK and Russia had been suspended.

Mrs May also announced that the Government will move to “freeze Russian State assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents”.

The expelled diplomats will now have one week to leave the country.

Mrs May told MPs: “This was not just an act of attempted murder in Salisbury – nor just an act against the UK.

“It is an affront to the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons and it is an affront to the rules based system on which we and our international partners depend.”

The Prime Minister set out the measures in a statement to MPs and Moscow responded by accusing London of choosing confrontation with Russia, promising swift retaliation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said: "The British government made a choice for confrontation with Russia. Our response measures will not be tardy."

Mrs May had given Moscow a Tuesday evening deadline to explain the use of the Russian-made nerve agent Novichok in the Salisbury attack.

But she said the Kremlin’s response had “demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events” and that "no credible explanation” had been offered.

She said Russia had “treated the use of a military grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance”.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, described the attack in Salisbury as an "appalling act of violence".

But he was barracked by MPs when he asked Mrs May how she had responded to requests from the Russian government for a sample of the nerve agent used in the attack and as he bemoaned cuts made to the UK's diplomatic network.

Mrs May told Mr Corbyn that there was a consensus on the situation - it just did not extend to the Labour leader.

She said: "It is clear from the conversations I have had with allies that we have a consensus with our allies, it was clear from the remarks that were made by backbenchers across the whole of this House on Monday that there is a consensus across the backbenches of this House.

"I am only sorry that the consensus does not go as far as the Right Honourable Gentleman who could have taken the opportunity - as the UK Government has done - to condemn the culpability of the Russian state."

Russia's embassy in the UK described the decision to expel 23 diplomats as a "hostile action" and as "totally unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted".

The embassy said in a statement: "All the responsibility for the deterioration of the Russia-UK relationship lies with the current political leadership of Britain."

The Prime Minister's statement came amid reports that the Russian embassy in Britain is planning to ask the UK for consular access to Yulia Skripal.

Mr Skripal and his daughter remain in a critical condition in Salisbury District Hospital.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/03/14/pmqs-theresa-may-set-deliver-russia-spy-statement-moscow-seeks/