Clash of ‘idiots’ in Uk-russia squabble

LONDON: As the condition of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia improved, leading lights of the Conservative Party and chief opposition on Sunday clashed on who was being an “idiot” for their positions in the row — foreign secretary Boris Johnson or Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Johnson used an article in The Sunday Times to rail against Corbyn, calling him “the Kremlin’s useful idiot” — the Labour chief insists apportioning blame should await completion of the probe into the poisoning attack, allegedly caused by a nerve agent associated with Russia.

Johnson wrote that Kremlin had made a “cynical attempt to bury awkward facts beneath an avalanche of lies and disinformation”, and claimed that the Russian government and stateowned media had invented 29 theories about the attack.

Other Conservative leaders also joined the attack on Corbyn.

In response, Labour’s shadow education secretary Angela Rayner told BBC: “Boris Johnson is the government’s useful idiot because actually, what he’s done is he’s created a situation where he has contradicted the evidence and overstepped the mark.”

Also on Sunday, the Foreign Office said it had received a request from Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko for a meeting with Johnson, but saw it as Moscow’s diversionary tactic. It would respond to the request “in due course”.