UK threatens a robust response on spy incident

Boris Johnson says Government will hit back if state responsibility emerges

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has vowed Britain will respond “robustly” if evidence of state responsibility emerges after a Russian double agent was left fighting for his life.

Sergei Skripal, 66, was found unconscious in Salisbury, Wiltshire, along with his 33-year-old daughter Yulia shortly after 4pm on Sunday.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Mr Johnson said he wanted to address speculation about the “disturbing” incident.

He told MPs: “While it would be wrong to prejudge the investigation, I can reassure the house that should evidence emerge that implies state responsibility, then Her Majesty’s Government will respond appropriately and robustly.”

Mr Johnson said it was clear Russia is now “in many respects a malign and disruptive force and the UK is in the lead across the world in trying to counteract that activity”.

If suspicions about the events in Salisbury prove to be well-founded, the Government may be forced to look again at its sanctions regime, he added.

Health and counter-terrorism specialists are helping police as they urgently seek to establish the chain of events prior to the pair being taken unwell.

Mr Skripal was convicted in 2006 of passing state secrets to MI6 before being given refuge in the UK as part of a spy swap.

The former colonel in Russian military intelligence, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison, was among four convicts who were given pardons and one of two sent to Britain in 2010 in a deal that was said at the time to be the largest exchange since the Cold War.

He was found along with his daughter on a bench in the Maltings in Salisbury after police were called by a concerned member of the public at around 4.15pm on Sunday.

The pair did not have any visible injuries and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital, where they are being treated in intensive care for “suspected exposure to an unknown substance”.

A CCTV image of a man and woman walking steadily through an alleyway between the Zizzi restaurant and the bench near a shopping centre where Mr Skripal was found is believed to be of interest to police.

Later, the Russian Embassy issued a statement saying: “The Foreign Secretary spoke in such a manner as if the investigation was already over and Russia was found responsible for what had happened in Salisbury.

“Looks like the script of yet another anti-Russian campaign has been already written.”

Picture: Getty. Sergei Skripal during a hearing at the Moscow District Court in 2006. He and his daughter are now seriously ill in hospital in the UK.