Jeremy Corbyn faced calls from Labour MPs to sack his spin chief last night after he claimed Russia may not be behind the spy poisoning.

Seumas Milne, the Labour leader’s communications director, questioned the reliability of information from Britain’s intelligence agencies and left open the possibility Vladimir Putin is being framed.

Mr Milne said the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq showed government claims that Russia was behind the Salisbury attack may be wrong. Theresa May condemned the comments as ‘shocking’ and ‘outrageous’ after a Conservative MP raised them in the Commons chamber.

Jeremy Corbyn faced calls from Labour MPs to sack his spin chief last night after he claimed Russia may not be behind the spy poisoning. Seumas Milne, the Labour leader’s communications director, questioned the reliability of information from Britain’s intelligence agencies and left open the possibility Vladimir Putin is being framed

Mr Milne has long supported Mr Putin – and even appeared at an event with the Russian president after his invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The hard-Left spin doctor was pictured shaking hands with Mr Putin at a conference in Sochi, Russia, in October 2014 – a year before he was appointed as Mr Corbyn’s director of strategy and communications.

The Labour leader has been given security briefings on the poisoning, but Mr Milne said yesterday that the Government may have more information.

In an extraordinary briefing, Mr Milne told reporters at Westminster: ‘The Government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don’t. However, also there is a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly.’

Pressed on whether Moscow was being framed, he suggested the attack could have been carried out by another former Soviet state.

Mr Milne (left) said the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq showed government claims that Russia was behind the Salisbury attack may be wrong

He added: ‘If the material is from the Soviet period, the break-up of the Soviet state led to all sorts of military material ending up in random hands.’ Labour MP Mike Gapes last night called for Mr Milne to be sacked.

He said: ‘I understand that Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman, Seumas Milne, has claimed there is no proof that Russia is behind the nerve gas attack in Salisbury.

‘Well Seumas has form on these matters. Not in my name.’

His Labour colleague, Anna Turley, added: ‘I’m afraid Seumas doesn’t speak for my Labour or British values.’