Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Contaminate
Tories: We’ll keep £800k Russia cash
it has taken a week. If I was one of the people affected, I would be annoyed to only be told now that I should wash my clothes and possessions.”
A 24-year-old man, who did not want to be named, added: “I had friends who went for a meal in Zizzi last Sunday. They are annoyed they don’t know what they could have come into contact with and are just being told to wash clothes.” Nerve agents typically act within minutes to hours after exposure, with early symptoms including sweating and nausea. However, the agent used on Skripal may have been modified to act more slowly if absorbed into the body via food.
That would make it harder to identify the source and when it was administered.
Speaking about the danger to residents, SHADOW Chancellor John Mcdonnell has said he will stop appearing on Russian state TV news channel Russia Today in the wake of the nerve agent attack.
He told the BBC it would not be right “in the current climate” and he would be encouraging Labour colleagues to follow suit.
Pressure piled on other MPS to snub RT, which is classed by the US as a Kremlin propaganda Jenny Harries, deputy medical director at PHE, said yesterday: “This is about a very, very small risk of repetitive contact for any traces of contamination.
“In risk terms, one or two days is not what we are concerned about. What we are worrying about is whether there could be an ongoing risk.”
In Salisbury yesterday the military removed vehicles for decontamination. Troops, including Royal Marines, were supported by firefighters, police and medics. Uniformed staff were seen
vehicle. But the Mirror understands Jeremy Corbyn will not engage in any official boycott or order his MPS to do so. His spokesman said: “We are keeping the issue under review.”
Tories including David TC Davies, Mike Freer, Johnny Mercer and Nigel Evans were paid between £750 and £1,000 to appear on RT, Commons figures show. Labour’s Kate Hoey, Rosie Duffield and Chris Williamson got £500. putting on protective suits before numbering at least eight police vehicles and civilian cars with spray-paint. A forklift then lifted the cars on to low-loaders.
Meanwhile, one of the men accused of poisoning Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 said it was “normal” that the UK authorities suspect Russia of foul play with Skripal.
But Andrei Lugovoi, 52, claimed it was “crazy” to believe President Vladimir Putin had directly ordered the latest assassination attempt.
He said: “I’m not rubbing my hands with glee. I believe he got what he deserved when he was sentenced to prison in Russia for selling secrets.”
Lugovoi, who denies assassinating Litvinenko but is hailed a hero in his country, added: “Russia is tired of being lectured to by the West. What business of yours is it how we run our country?” THE Tories will not pay back the £800,000 in Russian donations, despite Theresa May’s vow to distance the party from the oligarchs and their associates.
When she took office, Mrs May’s allies briefed that it would not be “business as usual”. Yet the Tories have since declared £826,100 from Russian-linked supporters, it was reported yesterday.
And they have accepted some £3million in donations from Russian billionaires and lobbyists since 2010.
Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday told the BBC the cash was “legitimate”.
He said: “There are people in this country who are British citizens who are of Russian origin. I don’t think we should taint them, or should tar them with Putin’s brush.”
Alexander Litvinenko’s widow Marina told the BBC: “These donations are not just from the heart for charitable reasons. They are calculated.”
Tory Minister Sam Gyimah dismissed any suggestion that the cash amounted to Moscow meddling in British politics.
“The Conservative Party has not accepted money from the Kremlin,” he claimed.
Banker and Putin ally Lubov Chernukhin, whose husband is a former Russian deputy finance minister, has donated £253,950 to the Tories.
In 2014, she paid £160,000 at a Tory fundraiser to play tennis with David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
A Conservative Party spokeswoman said they would “ensure the profits of corruption cannot flow from Russia into the UK.”