CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

HOME AFFAIRS – POISONING OF RUSSIAN DEFECTORS - 09 July 2018

HOME AFFAIRS – POISONING OF RUSSIAN DEFECTORS - 09 July 2018

Dr Julian Lewis: Given that, exactly 12 years ago, the Russian Federation Council passed a law permitting the extra-judicial killing of opponents overseas, is it not rather strange that Sergei Skripal was living in plain sight in Salisbury? Can the Home Secretary assure the House that those other defectors, such as Oleg Gordievsky, who has been sentenced to death in absentia, and Victor Makarov are having their security arrangements suitably reviewed and any protection that they require afforded to them?

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Sajid Javid): I am very happy to assure my right hon. Friend that, clearly, there were lessons to be learned from the original incident, and that, no doubt, there will be in due course from this new incident. I know that the security services and the police have drawn lessons from the action on 4 March, and part of that is making sure that all people in Britain, whether they are British citizens or others, have the level of protection that is necessary.]