Watson: Putin 'ordered' Salisbury attack
Tom Watson has claimed that the chemical attack in Salisbury was 'ordered personally' by Vladimir Putin.
The deputy Labour leader said fresh proof that one of the men accused by the UK of carrying out the poisoning in March is a Russian military officer showed that it was authorised by the Kremlin.
According to an investigative website, Ruslan Boshirov's real name is Anatoliy Chepiga, a colonel who was personally given the Hero of the Russian Federation award by President Putin in the past.
Boshirov and his alleged accomplice Alexander Petrov have claimed they were in Salisbury as tourists shortly before former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok.
West Bromwich East MP Mr Watson said: "The revelation that one of the Skripal poisoning suspects is a highly-decorated Russian colonel – and not an innocent Cathedral spotter – is fresh proof that Britain is now at the sharp end of an assault ordered personally by Putin.
"Clearly we now need overhaul of national security strategy to protect our democracy from Putin's 'hybrid warfare'."
His intervention came following Jeremy Corbyn's conference speech this week, where the Labour leader admitted for the first time that he now accepts Russia was behind the Salisbury attack.
Mr Watson has also called on Theresa May to mount a probe similar to the Mueller investigation into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 United States presidential election.
