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Corbyn: I would still do business with Putin despite Skripal attack

People carrying luggage leave the Russian embassy to board a van bearing diplomatic plates.
People carrying luggage leave the Russian embassy to board a van bearing diplomatic plates. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Jeremy Corbyn has said he would still do business with Vladimir Putin, as Russian diplomats expelled from the UK over the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter leave the embassy in London.

Speaking as ministers considered whether to introduce more sanctions against Russia over the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, the Labour leader suggested they should wait for evidence before imposing further measures.

And in an interview with the BBC to be broadcast later on Tuesday, Corbyn again stopped short of blaming the Kremlin for the attack.

“What I’m saying is the weapons were made from Russia, clearly,” he told Radio 4’s World at One. “I think Russia has to be held responsible for it, but there has to be an absolutely definitive answer to the question: where did the nerve agent come from?”

Corbyn added: “All fingers point towards Russia’s involvement in this, and obviously the manufacture of the material was undertaken by the Russian state originally.”

Three buses with diplomatic number plates left the embassy in London on Tuesday. The passengers were believed to be the 23 diplomats expelled by Theresa May last week.

Embassy workers waved to the leaving diplomats and their families as the buses pulled away, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.

People leave the Russian embassy in London on Tuesday.
People leaving the Russian embassy in London on Tuesday. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

In response to the prime minister’s action, Russia expelled 23 British diplomats on Saturday and closed the British Council in Moscow.

The UK’s national security council was meeting on Tuesday to consider any further measures against Russia.

In the Netherlands, staff at the Russian embassy in The Hague stood in tribute to their expelled colleagues on Tuesday. In a tweet, the Russian embassy in the Netherlands claimed the UK had been making life difficult for diplomats by delaying visa applications, even before the current dispute.