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World Cup 2018 'should be postponed and held outside Russia after Salisbury nerve agent attack'

PR opportunity: Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to use the tournament to promote his country: EPA
PR opportunity: Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to use the tournament to promote his country: EPA

The World Cup should be postponed until 2019 and held somewhere other than Russia, an MP has claimed.

Russia should be stripped of the tournament after the Kremlin’s alleged use of a nerve agent on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, Labour’s Stephen Kinnock said.

The country’s president, Vladimir Putin, is expected to use the tournament to showcase his country when it kicks off in Moscow on June 14.

But Aberavon MP Mr Kinnock said Fifa should be asked whether it was appropriate to mount a celebration of football in a state suspected of being behind the deployment of a nerve agent on the streets of the UK.

"I think we should seriously consider making a co-ordinated approach to Fifa and talk about moving the World Cup to 2019 and have it hosted in another country or countries,” he told the BBC.

"Putin has invested billions of roubles in the World Cup and sees it as an opportunity to showcase his regime to the world."

Theresa May has said no Government ministers or members of the Royal Family will attend the World Cup and the Foreign Office has warned England fans planning to travel to Russia that they should "be aware of the possibility of anti-British sentiment or harassment".

Sergei and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital (PA)
Sergei and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital (PA)

But the Government has not given its backing to a boycott of the tournament, insisting that the England team's involvement is a matter for the Football Association.

Russian ex-spy Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain critically ill in hospital after the poisoning in Salisbury on March 4.