Earlier in the day, UK Prime Minister Theresa May addressed the parliament focusing on the Salisbury incident and the steps London would take in response to the attempted murder of the former spy. She announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and gave them a week to leave. Previously, the prime minister said that Russia was "highly likely" behind the incident.
"Teresa May has been absolutely stupid because she is now in a hole over Brexit with the European Union and the EU is doing its best to keep Britain in and we want to be out. The whole point about this fiasco is that something happened and Mrs. May is now being able to point another finger at Russia and say this is our enemy. They are finding some excuse to actually blame Russia for something else so Russia becomes a big bad man again to take the pressure off Teresa May with the Brexit negotiations because she is not getting anywhere. Everybody I speak to is not on her side and not against Russia. I do think it was staged," Wood said.
The politician stressed that May has not provided any evidence for her allegations despite the fact that Russia has asked for proof and for access to the materials of the case.
"That is why May is now desperate to keep the momentum going against Russia when all Russia said is ‘show me the facts’," he said.
The Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom called the announced expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the UK over alleged Moscow's involvement in nerve agent attack on Skripal a hostile and unacceptable move.