Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Goldie]

As I indicated, last week, the Foreign Secretary told the Ratcliffe family that he is keen to meet them, and he hopes to do that shortly. We have to leave that with the Ratcliffe family and the Foreign Secretary. On the issue of diplomatic protection, Redress, on behalf of Mr Ratcliffe, formally requested a decision on a claim for diplomatic protection in May this year. The Foreign Secretary will be provided with all the relevant information and advice as a matter of urgency, and I understand that he is keen to take a decision as soon as possible.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was ill served by the previous Foreign Secretary not reading his briefs properly and therefore worsening her position in the courts? I hope that the new Foreign Secretary will improve on that performance. Was the Minister as puzzled as I was last night when, while watching “Channel 4 News”, I saw the ex-Foreign Secretary pull up at Carlton Gardens, in what appeared to be a public car, and use the facilities that are there for the Foreign Secretary and not for ex-Foreign Secretaries?

[Baroness Goldie]

I was so busy last night preparing for my marathon event at the Dispatch Box today that I was not watching “Channel 4 News” last night: I was bent over my desk trying to master my briefs.

Everyone wants to see progress made with our dual nationality detainees. No one is pretending that this is an easy situation—it is very far from it. There is welcome progress because of the approach that the UK Government have been adopting, as evidenced by the degree of contact that is now possible: for example, I understand that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is able to phone her husband a couple of times a week and see her daughter and, as I said, her parents. At the end of the day, Iran is a sovereign country and it has an independent court system. We simply do our best to ensure that the detainees are being properly treated in compliance with international obligations on Iran. We certainly seek and would welcome more specific information about the charges against the detainees where that is within the criminal milieu of Iran. The United Kingdom Government are doing their very best to keep channels of communication open to ensure that progress is made. The point made by my noble friend Lord Garel-Jones is pertinent.