let's talk to the chemical weapons expert dr richard guthrie, who is in our bristol studio. that point that there are 20 or so countries with the ability to produce it, is that accurate? that is probably not unrealistic in terms of laboratories that could synthesise the novichok in small quantities. you have to remember that when the first details of the novichok were made public in the early 1990s, part of the information that came out was that these were compounds that have been designed to evade detection by western detection equipment and possibly even to defeat western detection equipment. so of course, all of the western lads in the country that had the capacity, were attempting to look at the novichoks to understand them and try and replicate them from the limited information available in order to test their detection and protection equipment. that doesn't mean that they would be able to make

ok, that was dr richard guthrie. dr richard guthrie, independent chemical weapons experts speaking to us chemical weapons experts speaking to us from bristol. just to say, on that, we have just us from bristol. just to say, on that, we havejust heard us from bristol. just to say, on that, we have just heard from the condemnation of that apparent gas attack in syria, "an unjustifiable use of instruments of extermination. " use of instruments of extermination." that is condemnation from the pope there, as instruments of extermination. we will have more on that as we get it. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has described jeremy corbyn as the "kremlin's useful idiot" over his response to the nerve agent attack onsergei skripal, the former russian spy living in the uk, and his daughter yulia. writing in the sunday times, (he said the labour leader was giving moscow "propaganda" false credibility by refusing to "unequivocally" back the government's view that russia was responsible for the attack in salisbury. labour, in

in our bristol studio is the independent chemical weapons expert, dr richard guthrie.expected it to say, is it? yes, it is broadly in line, i mean i think the foreign office or the british tubman would not have gone to the opc wsa had not been confident in their notification the poisonous chemical. i think the key deer tells we see from this report isa deer tells we see from this report is a comment about the level of purity from the material, identified as highly pure because there are very few impurities, which actually ta kes a very few impurities, which actually takes a lot of effort to get it that pure. but also if you read between the lines there are at least four laboratories outside of the uk that have handled samples that were taken by the opc double to do the analysis, and those four laboratories have all come up with the same identification of the agent. —— opcw. the same identification of the agent. -- opcw. last time you and i spoke, we were reflecting on the fa ct spoke, we were reflecting on the fact that russia then was saying there were ten or a dozen