LONDON, November 26. /TASS/. The British Foreign Office has slammed Russia’s accusations against a British diplomat as groundless and warned about response measures.

"This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff. We will respond in due course," the Sky News television channel quoted a Foreign Office spokesperson as saying.

Later, a spokesman for the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also said that London refutes these allegations. "They are baseless. We are now considering our response," the spokesperson said, adding the response would come "in due course."

The Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) reported earlier that the second secretary of the political department of the UK Embassy in Moscow, Wilkes Edward Pryor, who replaced one of the six British intelligence officers who had worked at the embassy before being expelled in August, has also been stripped of his diplomatic accreditation. He was given two weeks to leave Russia.

Following this, British Ambassador to Moscow Nigel Casey was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. After the meeting, he left the ministry without any comments.

The Russian foreign ministry warned that Moscow will give a tit-for-tat response if London opts to escalate the situation following the expulsion of the British diplomat.