I called on the Foreign Secretary to work with others around to world to postpone the World Cup, and relocate it to another country in 2019. Our government should be working with others to strip Russia of the FIFA World Cup & relocate it in 2019, after the Women’s World Cup. Sport & politics DO mix & we should not allow Putin to use WC as smokescreen for his crimes & to bolster his regime.

Stephen Kinnock: I thank the Foreign Secretary for his response, but the fact is that sport and politics do mix. Who can forget Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin or the sporting boycotts of the despicable apartheid regime? Surely the Foreign Secretary sees the profound inconsistency between the very welcome retaliatory measures that our Government and many other Governments have taken and us all trotting off to Russia in a few months to provide Mr Putin with a smokescreen for what he does and how he behaves.

Boris Johnson: There are no plans to boycott the World cup or to try to get a boycott by the England team—that is, after all, a matter for the Football Association and not the Government—nor is there any desire to punish England fans. As the hon. Gentleman knows, there will be no attendance by Ministers or members of the royal family, as the Prime Minister told the House on 14 March. As he knows, several other countries have decided to put in place the same measures.