Politics: Boris Blunders On At Great Cost

In the double-speak world of Boris Johnson “sorry” seems to be the hardest word.

Equally difficult for the Foreign Secretary is any admission that he could possibly have said anything that was wrong, whether in parliament or anywhere else. Mistaken, possibly. His words taken out of context, again possibly. But never admitting to being wrong.

Instead the furthest he would go in a speech to the House of Commons was to admit that what he said last week to the House foreign affairs committee about a British-Iranian woman imprisoned in Iran  “could have been clearer.” In fact Johnson’s words before the committee were very clear. ”When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it,” he said.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an aid worker from Hampstead, was arrested in Iran in April 2016, sentenced to five years in prison and separated from her toddler daughter Gabriella, who remains trapped in that country. Her family and employers insist she is not a journalist and has never taught journalism, an activity that could add a further five years to her jail sentence in Iran. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been accused by iranian officials of being involved in “propaganda against the regime.” She has worked in the past for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the BBC but Zaghari-Ratcliffe insisted at her trial that she was not working in Iran and was merely on holiday to allow her daughter to visit her grandparents.

And then came the latest blundering intervention from Johsnon, who has repeatedly been accused of not bothering to do his homework or be properly prepared before he speaks. The ultra-sensitive Iranian regime hauled Zaghari-Ratcliffe back to court in Tehran and the judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights declared that the Foreign Secretary had revealed the truth. The court’s statement  read: “His [Johnson’s] statement shows that Nazanin had visited the country for anything but a holiday.”

Boris Blusters On

The British-Iranian woman had been eligible for parole under the Iranian early release scheme in two weeks. But her husband Richard Ratcliffe, a London accountant, told the Press Association that his imprisoned wife could now face a fresh trial before that date to block her chance of freedom.

“I think the one thing the Foreign Secretary could do to make amends would be if he went to visit her in the next few weeks before her trial,” he said. “Careless talk has a cost and there’s been a lot of careless talk.” When his wife learned during a weekend phone call what the Foreign Secretary had said she wept, he said.

Johnson has made a habit of expressing his own opinions – even when they are not official government policy – and making gaffes but few of his mishaps have had such obvious and ominous consequences for a British citizen. Scrambling to undo his damage, Johnson spoke by phone to the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to insist that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had indeed been on holiday.

He said his remarks “could form no justifiable basis for further action” against her and that he now planned to visit Iran before the end of the year to discuss the case.  “My point was that I disagreed with the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime – not that I wanted to lend any credence to Iranian allegations that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been engaged in such activity,” he said. “I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect, and I’m glad to provide this clarification…. of course I am sorry if any words of mine have been so taken out of context and so misconstrued as to cause any kind of anxiety for the family.”

Richard Ratcliffe said the stakes were remarkably high. “It is clear that the Iranian judiciary is using Boris Johnson’s error to build a case against Nazanin – let us not be too cavalier about the consequences,” he warned.  “This is an error that urgently needs to be corrected, otherwise there is a real risk it will be used to add years to Nazanin’s jail sentence.”

A National Liability

Tulip Siddiq, MP for Hampstead & Kilburn, said enough was enough. “Boris has been given a long period now in which to retract his wrong statement,” she said. “Now he has to resign. Nazanin has been on hunger strike, she is suicidal. You cannot bumble your way through a case like this.”

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former Tory foreign secretary said Johnson was not living up to the responsibilities of the job. “You have to get the detail right or you could cause serious problems for your own government.” Jack Straw, another former foreign secretary, said Johnson’s performance was hard to believe. “If you are Foreign Secretary, rule number one is ‘careless talk costs lives’.”

Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said Johnson should quit his position if his actions turn out to have damaged Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s prospects of freedom. The Foreign Secretary had become a “liability,” she said. “We are all bound to ask how many more times does this need to happen? How many more times does the Foreign Secretary have to insult our international partners, damaging our diplomatic relations, and now imperil the interests of British nationals abroad?”

Johnson’s colleague, Dr Liam Fox described the gaffe as “a slip of the tongue,” and tried to play down its importance. Richard Ratcliffe called Fox’s comments “a flippant statement.” “It is clear that the Iranian judiciary is using Boris Johnson’s error to build a case against Nazanin – let us not be too cavalier about the consequences. This is an error that urgently needs to be corrected, otherwise there is a real risk it will be used to add years to Nazanin’s jail sentence.”

 

by Bob Graham

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