May reaffirms stance that Russia is to blame

PM says there is ‘no other conclusion’ – while EU voices support for UK

Theresa May has hit back at Vladimir Putin’s dismissal of the British Government’s claim that Russia was responsible for the Salisbury spy poisoning.

The Prime Minister said Russia had the capability, motive and intent to carry out such an attack, adding that there can be “no other conclusion”.

Mrs May’s comments followed strong words from Boris Johnson, who accused Russia of trying to conceal “the needle of truth in a haystack of lies” over the case – after Mr Putin dismissed the idea of Russian responsibility as “nonsense”.

Arriving for a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels, the Foreign Secretary said Moscow’s denials over the incident were “increasingly absurd” as he accused the Kremlin of changing its story regarding the Novichok nerve agent Britain says was used in the attack.

The gathering of the EU Foreign Affairs Council declared its “unqualified solidarity” for the UK over the incident.

Experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) arrived in the UK yesterday to take samples of the nerve agent used in the case.

Mrs May, speaking during a visit to Birmingham, said: “I’m clear that what we have seen shows that there is no other conclusion but that the Russian state is culpable for what happened on the streets of Salisbury.”

In a joint statement, the Foreign Affairs Council said the European Union “takes extremely seriously the UK Government’s assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible”.

The statement added: “The Union calls on Russia to address urgently the questions raised by the UK and the international community and to provide immediate, full and complete disclosure of its Novichok programme to the OPCW.”

The Union calls on Russia to address urgently the questions raised by the UK ... EU FOREIGN AFFAIRS COUNCIL

Pictures: Getty/PA. Prime Minister Theresa May during her visit to an employment charity in Birmingham and, right, police and army personnel put on protective clothing in Durrington, Salisbury, as the investigation into the suspected nerve agent attack on Russian double...