THERESA May will make an emergency Commons statement this afternoon to update MPs on the nerve agent attack on Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who remain critically ill in hospital.

Speculation is growing at Westminster that the Prime Minister could point the finger at Moscow when she addresses MPs at 4.30pm.

Her Tory colleague, Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the attempted murder in Salisbury a week last Sunday was "looking awfully like it was state-sponsored attempted murder".

READ MORE: Investigators studying high-quality CCTV footage of Sergei Skripal

The backbencher said he would be surprised if Mrs May, who has chaired a meeting of the National Security Council this lunchtime, did not blame the Kremlin.

"It's a bit too early to be absolutely certain of that but we are expecting to see the Prime Minister make an announcement soon. And, frankly, I would be surprised if she did not point the finger at the Kremlin," said Mr Tugendhat.

He warned that football fans travelling to Russia for the World Cup could be at risk of harm if tensions escalated between London and Moscow.

"We do need to be very, very careful for British fans who are travelling there that they are not in any way caught up in the politics of this,” the Kent MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

"And, I'm afraid the danger of Russia responding to British fans for actions taken by their government is all too real."

But Lord Ricketts, the former UK National Security Adviser, said a boycott of the World Cup by UK officials would not "change the weather in Moscow".

"A wide boycott by a number of countries of the World Cup would send a very powerful message that Russia is no longer regarded as a responsible country. I don't know how likely that is, frankly," he said.

The crossbench peer added that he hoped there would be a "Nato-wide response" if the Kremlin were found to be responsible.

READ MORE: Labour gives mixed message on Kremlin TV after Salisbury poisonings

Labour peer Baroness Kennedy urged a “dramatic response,” if Moscow was found to have sponsored the Salisbury attack. The Scot said: “We can’t be so passive just because we want their money.”

Conservative Matthew Dean, leader of Salisbury City Council, said he believed advice given to members of the public to wash their clothes if they had been to the venues Mr Skripal had visited had been given quickly enough.

“What I am very confident about is that consistently the advice has been that this is a very, very precautionary approach and that they are advising that people wash their clothes because they don't want people to come into prolonged contact," he told Today.

He said it had been "business as usual" in the city at the weekend.

In Moscow, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's press secretary said: "We consider inappropriate any mention of the Russian Government in the context of what happened to Sergei Skripal. We have nothing to do with the story."

READ MORE: Investigators studying high-quality CCTV footage of Sergei Skripal

Downing Street said it did not recognise reports that the Cabinet was split over the response to the attack.

The PM's spokesman said: "You have seen words from the PM, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary and they are very clear that this is an ongoing investigation, that it is important that we allow the police to get on with their work, that we gather all the evidence and if we get to a position when we are able to attribute this attack then we will do so and the Government will deliver an appropriate response."