![Boris Johnson wearing a suit and tie]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"73","h":"47","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBJVU8s.img?h=474&w=728&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2214&y=1210"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"41","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBJVU8s.img?h=406&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2214&y=1210"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"41","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBJVU8s.img?h=406&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2214&y=1210"}})
Boris Johnson has said England could pull out of the football World Cup in Russia, if Moscow is found to be responsible for the hospitalisation of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter in Salisbury.
The foreign secretary said he was not yet “pointing figures”, but added “no attempt to take innocent life on UK soil will go unsanctioned or unpunished”.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday afternoon as well as imposing new sanctions, the UK would take “other measures”.
He added it would “be very difficult to imagine that UK representation” at this summer’s World Cup “could go ahead in the normal way”.
The 2018 tournament is being held from 14 June until 15 July across Russia. England is the only team from the UK to have qualified.
Sergei Skripal, a former Russian agent convicted of treason in Moscow for passing state secrets to British intelligence, is critically ill in Salisbury District Hospital hospital along with his daughter Yulia.
The pair were found slumped unconscious on a bench in the centre of Salisbury yesterday afternoon.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement and said it has “no information” about what happened.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday afternoon, Johnson said the British government would take “whatever measures we deem necessary” to “protect the lives of people in our country, our values and our freedom”.
He added “it is clear that Russia is now a malign and destructive force” and said it was time to “bring Russia to heel”.
“If things turn out to be as many members suspect that they are,” Johnson said. “I think we will have to have a serious conversation about our engagement with Russia.
“And for my own part, I think it will be very difficult to see how, thinking ahead to the World Cup this July, this summer, I think it would be difficult to imagine that UK representation at that event could go ahead in the normal way. We will certainly have to consider that.”
Johnson added the hospitalisation of Sergei and Yulia Skripal has “echoes” of the death of Alecander Litvinenko in 2006. - Huffington Post UK
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