Yesterday Luke Pollard, along with other Labour MPs, met outside the Foreign Office in a show of solidarity and support for Richard Ratcliffe during his hunger strike and to demand action from the UK Government to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Luke said:

“I strongly condemn the Iranian authorities’ imprisonment of dual British-Iranian nationals and believe they should be released immediately.

 

This situation is understandably distressing for Nazanin and her family, and my thoughts continue to be with them during this difficult time. Nazanin must be permanently released and allowed to return to the UK.

 

Clearly the Government’s approach to securing the release of UK nationals unfairly imprisoned in Iran has not worked to date. I believe this is a sustained failure of British diplomacy.

 

I would like to see the Government now pursue concrete steps, such as imposing human rights sanctions, to pressure the Iranian authorities to bring an end Nazanin’s ordeal. I will continue to follow developments closely.”