Quotes of the day 15th March 2018

"It seems to me, without any access to closed information, that the use of this particularly bizarre and dreadful way of killing an individual is a deliberate choice by the Russian Government to put their signature on a particular killing so that other defectors are left in no doubt that it is the Russian Government who will act if they are disappointed in any way by those people’s actions."

(Kenneth Clarke MP)



"As the Prime Minister has said, the attack on Mr Skripal and his daughter was an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom. There has to be a robust response to the use of terror on our streets. We must act in a measured way to show that we will simply not tolerate this behaviour. In that regard, I welcome, and associate those of us on the Scottish National party Benches with, the measures contained in the statement. On this matter, I commit my party to working constructively with the Government."

(Ian Blackford MP, SNP leader in the House of Commons)



"I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement. Her conclusion about the culpability of the Russian state is immensely serious. In addition to its breaches of international law, its use of chemical weapons and its continued disregard for the rule of law and human rights, that must be met with unequivocal condemnation.

May I welcome the measures she has taken to downgrade the intelligence capability of the Russian state, and particularly the work that I understand has started with the United Nations?

Within the United Nations, it is important to expose what the Russians are doing and to build the broadest possible support against them."

(Yvette Cooper, Labour MP and chairman of the House of Commons Home Affairs select committee)



"I and my party fully support the Prime Minister’s statement and position."

(Sir Vince Cable MP, leader of the Liberal Democrats)



"It is clear that there is almost unanimous support in the House for my right hon. Friend’s proportionate and right response to this crisis. In particular, she is absolutely right to use the mechanisms of the United Nations to make it clear to everyone what has happened in this ​case."

(Andrew Mitchell, Conservative MP)



"I assure the Prime Minister that most of us on the Labour Benches fully support the measures she has announced today".

(Labour MP Ben Bradshaw)



"I completely support everything the Prime Minister has said today. The truth is that, under Putin, the Russian Federation has managed to combine all the worst facets of communism and all the worst facets of rampant capitalism, all wrapped up inside a national security state which keeps its people poor and kills his political opponents."

(Chris Bryant, Labour MP)



"Responding with strength and resolve when your country is under threat is an essential component of political leadership. There is a Labour tradition that understands that, and it has been understood by Prime Ministers of all parties who have stood at that Dispatch Box. That means when chemical weapons are used, we need more than words, but deeds."

(Pat McFadden, Labour MP)


"The Russian economy is a fraction but its expenditure on offensive capability a multiple of ours. Is there a lesson there?"

(Desmond Swayne, Conservative MP)


All the above quotes are taken from the Hansard report of the debate following yesterday's statement by the Prime Minister on the Salisbury nerve gas attack and the government's response. That report can be read in full here.

Some further quotes:


"This week, as every week, I oppose Tory policies that I believe are harming my constituents. But today I support the action the PM is taking following despicable Russian aggression against our country one hundred per cent."

(Wes Streeting, Labour MP, on Twitter)



"I expressed my support for the initial steps that the prime minster has outlined in the House of Commons this afternoon.

"Obviously as legislation is brought forward we will scrutinise that carefully.

"But it is very clear that Russia cannot be permitted to unlawfully kill or attempt to kill people on the streets of the UK with impunity."

(Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, SNP, statement outside No 10 yesterday)



I was shocked.”

“I never imagined even in my bad dreams that this chemical weapon, developed with my participation, would be used as a terrorist weapon.”

Russian whistleblower Vil Mirzayanov, who was one of the chemists who developed the Novichok nerve poison during the cold war. He later grew angry that Russia failed to declare the existence of its' chemical weapons when international treaties to prevent the use by any nation of such weapons  were signed after the Cold War.

He was sacked and jailed for going public about what he knew and later moved to the USA.

Mr Mirzayanov, 83, is also quoted by Reuters as saying he had no doubt that Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible, given that Russia maintains tight control over its Novichok stockpile and that the agent is too complicated for a non-state actor to have weaponised.

The Kremlin all the time, like all criminals, denying - it doesn’t mean anything,” Mirzayanov said.

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