The man who bankrolled the Leave.EU campaign in last year’s EU referendum has graced us with his opinion on the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe question – and it ought to make you a Remainer on the spot.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in Iran last year, while she was visiting relatives in that country with her daughter, to celebrate the Persian New Year. The charge against her is apparently “plotting to topple the regime”.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson – ignorant fool that he is – made matters worse by telling Parliament she was training journalists when she was doing nothing of the sort. In fact, the assertion aided the claims of the Iranian authorities, who instantly dragged Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe back into court to threaten the addition of an extra five years to her prison sentence, doubling it.

Michael Gove – the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary – made matters worse by supporting Mr Johnson in an interview with Andrew Marr. While he did not repeat the falsehood that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists, he said he did not know why she had been in Iran and, after being told, made it seem that the explanation was unconvincing.

Both Mr Johnson and Mr Gove are now facing demands for their resignation, and minority prime minister Theresa May is facing demands for her to sack them if they won’t go willingly.

It is in this atmosphere that Arron Banks, who funded Leave.EU and is implicated in allegations of foreign – Russian? – interference in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union, has commented in support of Messrs Johnson and Gove. He tweeted:

It's nothing to do with Gove or Boris , but her own silly fault for going to Iran 🇮🇷, dopey https://t.co/2PpF6Q9OWL — Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) November 12, 2017

He was responding to Labour MP Chris Bryant, who had tweeted:

It is scandalous that Gove adds further ambiguity to Nazanin position by being so poorly briefed. Look, ministers, the Iranians are dastardly so you need to be ruthlessly self-disciplined or you put Britons at risk. — Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) November 12, 2017

In response, Mr Bryant stated:

This is what the face of Brexit looks like. https://t.co/EVF23Pr2jb — Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) November 12, 2017

And he’s right.

Arron Banks was the biggest supporter of Brexit – certainly its biggest funder. While he remains a shadowy figure, known more for his money than any public profile, he is the person most likely to be directly responsible for the vote in favour of leaving the EU, because of the huge funding boost he gave to the Leave campaign.

And both Mr Johnson and Mr Gove supported Brexit, so one is led to believe that Mr Banks is speaking out in support of them, rather than because he has any interest at all in Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

That is not acceptable.

The fact that this man is willing to condemn an innocent woman who has been wrongly imprisoned in a foreign country, purely to save the faces of his Brexit collaborators, is utterly vile. It casts a shadow over the entire Brexit movement.

Anybody supporting Brexit should be considering this situation very carefully. These are their leaders and their leaders are absolutely disgusting.

Brexit is right at the top of the news agenda at the time of writing (November 13), as the issue of workers’ rights has been raised by the Labour Party and by businessman James Dyson – he wants to use our departure to hammer workers’ rights.

Again – if this is the reality of Brexit, why do we want it?

Ultimately, Mr Banks – along with Messrs Johnson, Gove and Dyson – may have done us a good turn.

By showing us how repulsive he really is, he provides an excellent reason to demand reversal of the referendum decision.

Vox Political needs your help!

If you want to support this site

(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)

you can make a one-off donation here:

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue

fighting for the facts.



The Livingstone Presumption is now available

in either print or eBook format here:

Health Warning: Government! is now available

in either print or eBook format here:

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,

is still available in either print or eBook format here:

Share this: Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Tumblr

Email

Print

Reddit

Pinterest



Like this: Like Loading...