UK Foreign Secretary has now been called out by Russian officials, British politicians and thousands of social media users on his misleading claim on the origin of the Novichok nerve agent in Sergei Skripal’s poisoning. Boris Johnson, however, doesn’t seem to mind. The best defense is a good offense – seems to be his thinking.
The leader of the Labour Party has on March 4 reminded the British public in a televised interview that Boris Johnson has “claimed on German television that this was a Russian produced nerve agent, and Porton Down then examined it and said all they could identify was as Novichok, they couldn’t say where it came from.”
“The Foreign Office then issued a tweet in support of what the Foreign Secretary said, and then removed that yesterday after Porton Down had said they couldn’t identify the source of it,” Mr. Corbyn said.
The Russian embassy in the UK has questioned the motives behind Foreign Office’s action, reproducing a screenshot of the deleted tweet.
Why would @foreignoffice delete this tweet from 22 March? pic.twitter.com/Nvu1BfJw9J
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 4, 2018
FCO tweet deleted. Porton Down do not say ‘produced in Russia’. Assume Foreign Secretary wishes his interview with same claims could also be deleted. https://t.co/lDioScLzz8
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) April 4, 2018
Johnson’s claims and the UK Foreign Office’s actions have caused a massive row on social media, with users dismayed by how the UK PM Theresa May and her cabinet, especially Boris Johnson, dealt with the Skripal poisoning case. Hashtags #BorisMustGo and #TakeMayToo appeared on users’ posts.
It is lamentable that Jeremy Corbyn is now playing Russia’s game…