How sleepy Salisbury became the epicentre of a global spy murder plot

The week leading up to Mother’s Day should be the busiest in florist Danny Styles’s calendar. But as he stands on the edge of Salisbury’s Maltings shopping centre attempting to flog his wilting blooms he admits business has never been so slow.

“First it was the snow,” says the 32-year-old. “Then it was the nerve gas. I actually think people are scared from coming into the centre of Salisbury."

A curious state of fear and incredulity reigns on the normally sleepy streets of the cathedral city following the nerve agent attack against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, 33, late last Sunday afternoon.

Prior to this week the big news in town was a plan for a new trampoline park...