Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Alert spreads to Army base
Defence Tory: It’s chilly but not Cold War
THE nerve agent alert has spread to a military base – sparking fears contamination is worse than thought.
Emergency crews in chemical protection suits yesterday sealed off a road in Larkhill, Wilts, and removed a grey family saloon from outside houses belonging to senior army officers.
Sources said it may have been parked close to Sergei Skripal’s BMW in a Sainsbury’s car park on the day of the poisoning.
Counter-terror police are probing whether the would-be assassins placed a powdered variant of the poison in the
BMW’S ventilation system while it was on the ex-spy’s drive.
Another theory is that it was smeared on the door handles.
Garrison town Larkhill is the country’s principal training establishment for artillery warfare.
Sources said the car removed from there was owned by a civilian not a serving soldier.
One resident said: “My best guess is it was parked near the spy’s car.
“Perhaps the owners called and said their car was close. Or they are collecting all the cars that were in the area in case they are contaminated. We just don’t know.” In another dramatic development, the home of a policeman poisoned by the nerve agent was sealed off.
Det Sgt Nick Bailey is recovering in hospital after receiving secondary contamination while investigating.
It is feared the 38-year-old may have carried traces of the Novichok back to his car and house. Soldiers and police sealed off the cul-de-sac in Alderholt, Hants, where he lives with wife Sarah, 37, and two young children.
There are now fears they, too, may have been exposed.
Investigators in hazmat suits used large army trucks to remove the family’s two cars.
A neighbour said: “We hope it’s just a precaution but we don’t know if the wife has been using the car.
“The family were certainly staying at the address initially but don’t appear to be there any more.”
It is believed Det Sgt Bailey examined the maroon BMW the Russian drove hours before he collapsed.
He initially had a hospital check-up but was discharged only to fall ill later.
He was in a critical condition but is now said to be stable and met PM Theresa May on her visit yesterday.
Down where testing for the nerve agent was carried out. And she praised emergency crews working in Salisbury including Wiltshire Police officers Alex Way and Alex Collins, who went to the aid of the Skripals on March 4.
PC Collins told her they had believed the incident was a “routine call”. Mrs May said: “You had no idea what you were dealing with. You did a great job.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was under fire after suggesting other nations could have been responsible for the poisoning. Nineteen Labour backbenchers have signed a motion putting on record their full backing for the PM’S measures against Russia.
Mr Corbyn was forced to clarify that he did think evidence pointed towards Moscow. But he also warned Mrs May not to “rush way ahead of the evidence”.
He said: “Labour is of course no supporter of the Putin regime. However, that does not mean we should resign ourselves to a ‘new cold war’.”
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “You have to be a conspiracy theorist of the wildest kind to believe there is anything other than fact about the statement that Russia has done this.”
Meanwhile the US has taken action over Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 US election. It put sanctions on Russian troll farm the Internet Research Agency, which put divisive political posts on US social media platforms during the election.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: “I think you can see... we’re going to be tough on Russia until they decide to change their behaviour.” THE Defence Secretary called relations with Russia “exceptionally, exceptionally chilly” but denied there was a new Cold War.
Gavin Williamson said: “Let’s face it, relations ain’t good, are they?” at a Policy Exchange think-tank event for defence experts.
He accused Vladimir Putin of hiding the scale of his role in Syria and linked him to the feared paramilitary Wagner group’s actions there, the first such accusation by a UK minister.
But he was mocked for saying Russia should “go away and shut up” over the expulsion of diplomats.
Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner sarcastically called him “intrepid”. Labour MP Chuka Umunna said it was not a “thoughtful response”, the “tone and content wrong” and he should show “he has a grip”.