JEREMY Corbyn has defended his stance on the Salisbury poison attack after he caused a row at Westminster for raising doubts over whether or not Russia was to blame.

The Labour leader stressed he "totally condemned" the chemical attack in Salisbury and said the “evidence points towards Russia" being responsible.

But he also suggested the possibility that the nerve agent attack was carried out by Russian-linked gangsters could not be excluded.

And he warned against a “McCarthyite intolerance of dissent,” urging Theresa May not to "rush way ahead of the evidence," highlighting the way international crises such as the Iraq War had seen "clear thinking" overwhelmed by "emotion and hasty judgements".

The Labour leader faced criticism, including from his own side, after failing to offer his support in Parliament on Wednesday to the Prime Minister's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

But on Thursday morning, Nia Griffith, the Shadow Defence Secretary, publicly backed the mass expulsion, saying it would have been "easier for us" if Mr Corbyn had made clear he supported the move too.

Speaking during a visit to Carlisle, the party leader explained: "I was extremely definite yesterday that I totally condemn this attack. The perpetrators must be brought to justice.

"The international Chemical Weapons Convention must be invoked and the source of this weapon, which appears to be Russia - either from the state or from a rogue element of the state - must be brought to justice as a result of it."

He added: "The evidence points towards Russia on this, therefore responsibility must be borne by those that made the weapon, those that brought the weapon into the country and those that used the weapon."

The Leader of the Opposition was briefed on Privy Council terms ahead of Wednesday's Commons statement about the intelligence behind Mrs May's assessment that Moscow was culpable for the attack.

But his chief spokesman appeared to question the Government's use of intelligence material, telling reporters there was "a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly".

This prompted Labour backbencher John Woodcock to table a parliamentary motion "unequivocally" accepting the "Russian state's culpability" for the attack and supporting "fully" the statement made by Mrs May in the Commons.

The motion was swiftly signed by a number of prominent critics of Mr Corbyn, some of whom went public with their criticism of the leader's senior aide Seumas Milne.

Labour MP Anna Turley tweeted: "I'm afraid Seumas doesn't speak for my Labour or British values", while Chuka Umunna said: "Mr Milne's comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs."