THE husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than two years, has said the resignation of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary has delayed the campaign to secure her release.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whose sister-in-law, Rebecca Jones, is a GP in Cwmbran, was arrested in Tehran in April 2016 with her daughter Gabriella, then 22 months, accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian regime.

And now her husband Richard Ratcliffe has said Boris Johnson was due to make a decision on whether his wife would be granted diplomatic protection, which would escalate the case to a state matter and put greater pressure on Iran to release her, this week. But Mr Johnson resigned from the cabinet on Tuesday - before making a decision on the case. He has been replaced by Jeremy Hunt.

Speaking to the Guardian Mr Ratcliffe said: “The immediate complication is the diplomatic protection request, which was on (Mr Johnson’s) desk and now has to wait for the new foreign secretary to be fully briefed on the Iran portfolio and be ready to make a decision.

"What the Foreign Office told us is that it’s going to take some time and they would let us know when (Mr Hunt) is ready to receive full application again.

"We were expecting a decision this week and we would not get that decision this week.”

Mr Johnson himself complicated the case last year when he incorrectly stated in Parliament Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has joint British and Iranian citizenship, had been training journalists in Iran.