Corbyn has been Kremlin’s useful idiot, says Boris

BORIS Johnson accused Jeremy Corbyn of being ‘ the Kremlin’s useful idiot’ last night for refusing to blame Russia for the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

The Foreign Secretary claimed the Labour leader was playing ‘Putin’s game’ by refusing to say ‘unequivocally... that the Russian state was responsible’.

He said: ‘ There is only one thing that gives the Kremlin succour and lends false credibility to its propaganda onslaught. That is when politicians from the targeted countries join in. Sadly, I am driven to the conclusion that Jeremy Corbyn has joined this effort.’

Writing in The Sunday Times, he added: ‘Corbyn shames himself by lending it succour. Truly he is the Kremlin’s useful idiot.’

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid also criticised Mr Corbyn’s response to the attack in Salisbury on March 4.

He told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC1: ‘There’s no doubt when it comes up against this issue with Russia that we are having... Jeremy Corbyn has let the British people down.’

It emerged yesterday that former Russian spy Mr Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter may be offered new identities to protect them from another murder attempt. MI6 officials and the CIA are said to have discussed giving them a secret life in the US.

Mr Skripal has British citizenship, but his Russian daughter could be given political asylum by Britain in the meantime.

A senior Whitehall source told The Sunday Times they were most likely to live in secret in one of the so-called ‘five-eyes’ countries – an intelligencesharing partnership that also includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The source added: ‘They will be offered new identities.

‘The obvious place to resettle them is in America because they’re less likely to be killed there and it’s easier to protect them under a new identity.

‘There’s a preference for them to be resettled in a five- eyes nation because their case would have huge security implications.’

Sources say the pair will soon begin helping investigators with the inquiry into the nerve agent attack. Mr Skripal’s condition is ‘improving rapidly’, and his daughter could soon be discharged from hospital.

The Russian embassy has accused the Foreign Office of failing to explain why a relative of the Skripals was denied a visa to visit them.

Government sources told the Mail that the visa was refused over fears that Miss Skripal’s cousin Viktoria was being used as a pawn by the Kremlin.

Miss Skripal has also said she does not want Viktoria to visit her, and has rejected demands from the Russian embassy that it provide consular support to her and her father.

But some Russian relatives of the poisoning victims claim they are being held ‘in detention’ in Britain.

Mr Skripal’s cousin Natalia Pestova, 65, raised concerns about Miss Skripal following a phone call she made to Viktoria last week, adding: ‘We are very confused by what Yulia said.

‘The feeling from hearing her voice was that she wasn’t speaking at her own initiative.

‘I wonder if she is in some kind of detention.’

Viktoria, 45, is said to be planning to make a new visa application this week. She appealed to Theresa May to overturn her visa rejection so she could visit the pair, who have been in Salisbury District Hospital since they were poisoned.

Miss Skripal’s boyfriend, Stepan Vikeev, 30, is expected to be questioned by Russian prosecutors after Viktoria claimed that the nerve agent attack may have been the result of a domestic dispute over their intended marriage.

‘He has let British people down’