VETERAN Newport MP Paul Flynn has accused foreign secretary Boris Johnson of “clownish incompetence” over comments regarding jailed British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Earlier this month the foreign secretary was criticised after claiming Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whose sister-in-law Rebecca Ratcliffe is a GP in Cwmbran, had been training journalists in Iran when she was arrested in Tehran last April. Her family have insisted this is not true.

She is currently serving a five-year sentence, despite saying she was only in the country to see her family.

And, speaking in Parliament earlier this week long-serving Newport West MP Mr Flynn said: “Will the right honourable gentleman reflect on this and the rest of his conduct as foreign secretary in order to realise that his brand of clownish incompetence is a joke that is so longer funny, and consider being replaced by a competent politician who will attract the respect of the world and not the ridicule that he attracts?”

Mr Johnson replied: “As I have said, I think that the best course for us all is to try to minimise the political point-scoring and concentrate on getting Nazanin home.