We Will punish russia if moscoW is responsible, voWs may

THERESA May promised that Britain will “do what is right” to punish Russia if Moscow is proved to be behind the assassination attempt on spy Sergei Skripal.

The Prime Minister said police needed time to investigate who attacked the double agent and his daughter Yulia with a poison nerve agent which also put Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey’s life in danger.

But she said yesterday: “Of course if action needs to be taken then the Government will do that – properly, at the right time and on the basis of the best evidence.

“We will do what is appropriate, what is right, if it is proved to be the case that this is state-sponsored.”

Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the House of Commons: “The use of nerve agent on UK soil is a brazen and reckless act, attempted murder in the most cruel and public way. People are right to want to know who to hold to account.”

Senior Conservative Sir Edward Leigh said that if Russia was responsible it would be an “act of war, of humiliating our country”.

Ms Rudd replied: “There will come a time for attribution and there will be, then, consequences.”

She denied Britain had been too soft on Russia, insisting: “This government has not been asleep at the switch.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, on a visit to Derbyshire, told the BBC East Midlands: “What happened in Salisbury is obviously appalling and abominable and the police must investigate, as must the security services.” But he added: “It’s quite dangerous to decide who did something when we don’t have all the evidence.”

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson widened the debate by saying “Russia is becoming an ever-greater threat” to the UK.

Mr Williamson cited an “increasingly aggressive” attitude from Moscow towards Ukraine and Estonia and a 10-fold increase in the past seven years in the number of Russian submarines patrolling the North Atlantic.

He told ITV: “Russia’s being assertive, Russia’s being more aggressive, and we have to change the way we deal with it because we can’t be in a situation in these areas of conflict where we are being pushed around by another nation.”