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Boris Johnson is expected to call Iran's foreign minister on following reports that comments he made were being used in Tehran as a justification to extend the jail sentence imposed on a British woman.

The Foreign Secretary is facing calls to retract his claim to a parliamentary committee last week that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists in Iran at the time of her arrest last year - something her employer and her family insist is incorrect.

In a statement released by the Foreign Office, a spokesman did not offer any correction, saying instead that Mr Johnson's comments may have been "misrepresented" and they provide "no justifiable basis" for additional charges.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is serving a five-year sentence in an Iranian jail, was summoned to an unscheduled court hearing last weekend at which Mr Johnson's remarks were cited as proof that she had been engaged in "propaganda against the regime".

Reports suggest the new charge could add five years to her prison term, imposed over unspecified allegations of involvement in a supposed coup attempt against the Tehran regime, which she denies.

Richard Ratcliffe, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, said "careless talk has a cost and there's been a lot of careless talk".

Labour former Cabinet minister Yvette Cooper said the comments were "appalling".

"Hard to find words for how appalling this is," she said. "For him it's just another lazy, arrogant failure to check facts. For her it's incarceration."

Mr Ratcliffe said: "The worst thing the Foreign Secretary could do is to now suddenly go quiet and to create this problem without making any clarifications.

"I think that's really important. You can't make a muddle and then leave it. That would be the worst of both worlds."

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe insisted in her original trial that she was not working in Iran at the time of her arrest, but was visiting the country to show her baby daughter Gabriella to her grandparents.

Mr Johnson told a parliamentary committee on November 1: "When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it.

"(Neither) Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe nor her family has been informed about what crime she has actually committed. And that I find extraordinary, incredible."

Following Saturday's hearing, the Iranian judiciary's High Council for Human Rights said: "His statement shows that Nazanin had visited the country for anything but a holiday.

"For months it was claimed that Nazanin is a British-Iranian charity worker who went to see her family when she was arrested ... Mr Johnson's statement has shed new light on the realities about Nazanin."

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's employer, Thomson Reuters Foundation, urged Mr Johnson to correct his "serious mistake".

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Last week's remarks by the Foreign Secretary provide no justifiable basis on which to bring any additional charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

"While criticising the Iranian case against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Foreign Secretary sought to explain that even the most extreme set of unproven Iranian allegations against her were insufficient reason for her detention and treatment.

"The UK will continue to do all it can to secure her release on humanitarian grounds and the Foreign Secretary will be calling the Iranian foreign minister to raise again his serious concerns about the case and ensure his remarks are not misrepresented."