Richard Ratcliffe met with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner on day 17 of his hunger strike.

Mr Ratcliffe is currently on a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office, in response to the government’s failure to secure the release of his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from detention in Iran.

He was today pictured with Strictly Come Dancing co-host Claudia Winkleman and broadcaster Victoria Coren Mitchell who visited him to display their support.

On 23 September she marked the 2000th day of her arbitrary detention in the country.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss spoke with her Iranian counterpart earlier this week, but no progress was made on the case.

On 28 October Mr Ratcliffe met with the Foreign Secretary and his MP Tulip Siddiq to discuss the case.

He told the BBC in the wake of the meeting that he was “disappointed” at the government’s failure to free his wife.

“My criticism of the British government is they’ve not prioritised the safety of British citizens in the course of their nuclear negotiations, in the course of their discussions with Iran and other stuff’s been more important,” he explained, adding: “And actually nothing is more important for the government than protecting its own citizens.”

In 2017, Boris Johnson erroneously informed MPs that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “teaching people journalism” before her detainment by Iranian authorities.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family and her employer have both maintained Mr Johnson’s comments were untrue.

However his statement was referred to as proof by Iranian authorities that she was responsible for “propaganda against the regime”.