Labour MP Tulip Siddiq demands review into Zaghari-Ratcliffe negotiations

Tulip Siddiq MP has called for a select committee review into the negotiations between the UK government and Iranian officials to secure the release of her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from prison.

At a press conference in Westminster this afternoon, marking her constituent’s first media appearance since being released from prison in Iran last week, the Labour MP described the Zaghari-Ratcliffe family as an “ordinary family thrust into an extraordinary situation” who “rose to the challenge”.

The Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn told journalists that “Nazanin could have been home a long time ago if we had paid the historic debt of £400m earlier”, saying she would “ask for a review into the handling of her case”.

The £400m debt, relating to a cancelled order for 1,500 tanks dating back to the 1970s, had been linked to the detention of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals. The government has repeatedly insisted that the two issues are not connected.

Siddiq said: “I will be writing to Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, to ask for an inquiry into Nazanin’s case and the wider issue of hostage-taking by Iran.”

She argued the review by the parliamentary committee should cover an incident in 2013 when said three Iranian officials came to the UK to discuss repayment of the historic debt but were detained, as well as examining why a deal for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release fell through last year.

Asked today whether nonpayment of the £400m debt owed by the UK to the Iranian government caused the delay to her release, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: “Yes.” She said she was told “early on” that the Iranians “want something off the Brits” and would not release her until they got it, adding: “They kept their promise.”

She criticised the government for the six-year delay in securing her release, saying: “I have seen five Foreign Secretaries over the course of the six years… I was told many, many times that ‘oh we’re going to get you home’… How many Foreign Secretaries does it take?”

Asked whether the couple will be considering judicial review of the case, her husband said: “No, probably is the short answer.” He told journalists that they “were talking about it” but that an inquiry is a “good idea”, adding that there is a “wider issue about how the government deals with hostage taking”.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe warned this afternoon that “the meaning of freedom is never going to be complete” until everyone “unjustly detained in Iran” is free. She was one of two British-Iranians released last week. Morad Tahbaz, also a dual British-Iranian national as well as a US passport holder, is still in prison.

The 43-year-old Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been imprisoned in Iran for six years after being arrested while visiting family in the country. The Iranian authorities accused her of plotting to overthrow the government, an allegation she denied.

Her local MP, Siddiq, demanded answers from the UK government over ministerial efforts to secure the release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe last year while asserting that “at the heart of this tragic case is the Prime Minister’s dismal failure”.

Boris Johnson, serving at the time as Foreign Secretary, criticised the conviction of Zaghari-Ratcliffe while appearing before a parliamentary committee in 2017 but added that she was “simply teaching people journalism”.

Three days after his statement, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was summoned before an unscheduled court hearing where Johnson’s comments were cited as evidence that the dual national was engaged in “propaganda against the regime”.