Salisbury attack: Labour accuses Government of 'playing party politics' by witholding high-level intelligence from Jeremy Corbyn

'The circle of who gets to see very sensitive information is very small because if you leak it or it gets out, people's lives are put at risk,' minister says

Security minister Ben Wallace said the Labour leader had had seen more intelligence "than the average backbench MP" (Facebook)

Labour has accused the Government of "playing party politics" with national security after a minister defended withholding high-level intelligence on the Salisbury nerve agent attack from Jeremy Corbyn.

Security minister Ben Wallace said the Labour leader had had seen more intelligence "than the average backbench MP", due to his membership of the Privy Council, but some evidence had not been shared as the number of people who know the truth is "very small".

He said it was "beyond reasonable doubt" that Moscow was behind the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal last month, despite chemical weapons experts saying they were unable to pinpoint the precise source of the deadly novichok used in the attack.

Labour hit back at the suggestion that Mr Corbyn would have leaked information, claiming it was a "completely irresponsible" attempt to deflect attention from Boris Johnson, who has come under fire for claiming Porton Down scientists had identified Russia as the source of the nerve agent.

Mr Corbyn was reportedly offered lesser access to highly sensitive information on the attack than David Cameron offered to Ed Miliband before a parliamentary vote on Syria in 2013, according to The Times.

Mr Wallace told the Today programme: "I think he [Jeremy Corbyn] will have seen more than the average backbench MP because he had a Privy Council briefing.

"But at the end of the day, this government is responsible for the security of the people and the United Kingdom's interests, and as a result we have to make a judgement based on the advice we have from the professionals, that's the intelligence services and our police."

He added: "This is serious stuff. The circle of who gets to see very sensitive information is very small because if you leak it or it gets out, people's lives are put at risk.

"The best example of that is Mr Skripal, that’s what happens to people if other countries to decide to take actions or they have enemies.”

Mr Wallace said there was "no missing nerve agent that no-one can find" when asked about comparisons to the Iraq War, and doubled down on the Government's belief that Moscow was behind the attack.

He said: "That nerve agent has been identified to being manufactured we believe in Russia and we believe that the nerve agent, the Novichok type of nerve agent, is only capable of being produced by a nation state, and then we add that to intelligence we hold, we add that to some of the police investigation that's going on right now, and we can say that roads lead to Russia, that we are beyond reasonable doubt of the view that the Russian state is behind this."

However a Labour spokesman said: "This is completely irresponsible and another attempt by the Tories to deflect criticism from Boris Johnson's blatant attempt to mislead the public.

"The Foreign Secretary has still failed to account for himself and still has serious questions to answer.

"Ben Wallace should be acting in the national interest, not playing party politics with the country's security."

It comes as Russia called for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the UK has "legitimate questions" to answer about the attack on the Skripals.

Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko denied his country had produced the novichok, in an two-hour press conference, where he said Mr Johnson's claim that Russia maintained a stockpile of Novichok "likely for assassination" was "untrue... not supported by any evidence ... unacceptable".

Mr Yakovenko denied that Russia had ever produced the Novichok nerve agent and said there were "a lot of suspicion about Britain" in relation to deaths of Russian citizens over the past 10 years.