And the Labour leader attacked the views expressed by ministers about the Kremlin – saying they were not ‘particularly helpful or sensible’
JEREMY Corbyn once again refused to condemn Russia over the Sergei Skripal poisoning instead calling for “dialogue” with Vladimir Putin.
And the Labour leader attacked the views expressed by ministers about the Kremlin’s involvement in the Salisbury attack – saying they were not “particularly helpful or sensible”.
Speaking as he launched his party’s local election campaign, Mr Corbyn said: "As I said, what happened in Salisbury was totally, absolutely wrong.
"But there has to be a robust, a very serious and robust dialogue with Russia.”
Despite Theresa May repeatedly pointing the finger at Moscow for the chemical attack which left the ex-KGB agent, his daughter Yulia and a police officer gravely ill in hospital, the Labour boss was once again unwilling to back her.
He added: "We live in one continent. We have to have a process where differences can be dealt with. Where we challenge human rights abuses, as I do and will and always do whoever the head of government is, whatever state it is, and we have that dialogue.”
Mr Corbyn was speaking as the Prime Minister travels to Brussels for a meeting of the EU council, where she will try and convince her fellow leaders to put out a joint statement on the use of Novichok on UK soil.
She will insist that if European states stand shoulder to shoulder in the face of Russian aggression, then "united, we will succeed".
But the Labour boss told an audience in Greater Manchester: "I think at the end of the Council of Ministers summit, there will be an agreement, I hope, to condemn what happened in Salisbury.
“To demand the chemical weapons inspectors have access to all sites, in all parts of the world, including Russia and that we have that serious and robust dialogue with Russia."
It comes after Boris Johnson ramped up the war of words with the Kremlin yesterday by suggesting Putin is hoping for a propaganda boost from this summer's World Cup similar to that which Hitler sought in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Mr Corbyn hinted at that, and the comment by the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson telling Russia to “shut up”, by saying some views expressed by ministers were not "particularly helpful or sensible."
He added: "I don't have any problem with the people of Russia, I don't have a problem with people of any country. Do we have a problem with people who abuse human rights? Yeh, sure we do.
“And that you have to draw that distinction, and that difference, and we would do that.”
