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| Russian diplomats move out of UK embassy following expulsion over Salisbury spy poisoning | Russian diplomats move out of UK embassy following expulsion over Salisbury spy poisoning |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| A plane carrying more than 20 Russian diplomats and their families has departed London’s Stansted airport, after they were expelled from Moscow’s Kensington embassy following the Salisbury poisoning. | |
| Embassy staff waved goodbye as a procession of cars carrying roughly 80 people pulled away from the gated Kensington Palace Gardens complex just after 10am. | Embassy staff waved goodbye as a procession of cars carrying roughly 80 people pulled away from the gated Kensington Palace Gardens complex just after 10am. |
| Hugging each other and carrying pet carriers, suitcases and bags, 23 diplomats with their children and families boarded a chartered flight to return to Russia. | Hugging each other and carrying pet carriers, suitcases and bags, 23 diplomats with their children and families boarded a chartered flight to return to Russia. |
| Theresa May ordered the Russian staff to pack their bags last Wednesday, claiming the London diplomats were “undeclared intelligence officers”. | Theresa May ordered the Russian staff to pack their bags last Wednesday, claiming the London diplomats were “undeclared intelligence officers”. |
| Moscow announced it would also throw out 23 British diplomats, and that it would close the British Council and shut down the British consulate in St Petersburg in retaliation. | |
| The National Security Council was considering the latest developments in the troubling case of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were poisoned using a nerve agent at the beginning of the month and remain in critical condition. | The National Security Council was considering the latest developments in the troubling case of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were poisoned using a nerve agent at the beginning of the month and remain in critical condition. |
| Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson 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”. | Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson 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”. |
| Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary said the use of a nerve agent against the Skripals was “very deliberate”. | |
| “As Ken Clarke pointed out in Parliament last week, the obvious Russian-ness of the weapon was designed to send a signal to anyone pondering dissent amid the intensifying repression of Mr Putin’s Russia,” he wrote. | “As Ken Clarke pointed out in Parliament last week, the obvious Russian-ness of the weapon was designed to send a signal to anyone pondering dissent amid the intensifying repression of Mr Putin’s Russia,” he wrote. |
| “The message is clear: we will hunt you down, we will find you and we will kill you – and though we will scornfully deny our guilt, the world will know that Russia did it.” | “The message is clear: we will hunt you down, we will find you and we will kill you – and though we will scornfully deny our guilt, the world will know that Russia did it.” |
| Additional reporting by agencies | Additional reporting by agencies |