Drivers’ MOT misery
MORE than a quarter of Britain’s cars are overdue vital road safety checks, new figures show.
Some 28% of vehicles are late for their MOT and two-thirds of those are at least a week behind schedule, according to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. The agency has launched a free service enabling drivers to receive a text message or email four weeks before their car’s MOT is due. Motorists can be fined up to £1,000 if they are caught driving a car without a valid MOT certificate. BRITISH woman Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe, who has been jailed in Iran, has seen a medical specialist after finding lumps on her breasts and is “on the verge of a nervous breakdown”, her husband Richard Ratcliffe has said.
The mother of one has “expressed anger” at Boris Johnson over the “shambles” her case has become, but her family said they do not believe the Foreign Secretary should quit.
Mr Ratcliffe said he spoke to Mr Johnson for about 20 minutes in a conversation yesterday morning, during which the Cabinet minister said he was “deeply sorry for Nazanin’s suffering”.
Mr Johnson told a Commons committee Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “training journalists” in Iran at the time of her arrest last year. The comments were used in Tehran to justify threats to extend her jail term.
Mr Ratcliffe insisted he did not believe his wife’s interests were served “by more instability” and said Mr Johnson has a “crucial role in the weeks ahead to stand up for Nazanin”. He added: “So that this is clear – for the media, Government and particularly for authorities in Iran – as Nazanin’s Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe husband, I do not believe it is in Nazanin’s interests for there to be any resignations.”
Mr Ratcliffe said the Foreign Secretary “undertook to look seriously at the prospect” of allowing him to join his planned visit to Iran in the coming weeks.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 38, has suffered severe physical and mental trauma since being arrested as she tried to leave Tehran last year with her daughter Gabriella following a holiday.
The charity worker was accused of plotting to topple the regime, which she denies, and later sentenced to five years in prison.
On Saturday, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken to Iranmehr hospital, Tehran, to see a specialist for an ultrasound on her breasts.
New lumps have been found, and she has complained of sharp stabbing pains in her breasts for some months, Mr Ratcliffe said. It follows a previous inconclusive mammogram.
The consultant said the lumps were likely to be benign, but her family history of breast cancer, along with the pain, meant she should be kept under “close surveillance”.
Mr Ratcliffe said she again suggested she was on “the verge of a nervous breakdown” and had been “brought to tears” at the “lies” being shown on Iranian television about her case.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has also come under fire after appearing to cast doubt over her actions.
Asked what she was doing in Iran, Mr Gove told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “I don’t know. One of the things I want to stress is, there is no reason why Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe should be in prison in Iran, so far as any of us know.”
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said Theresa May must ensure Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe “does not pay the price for her ministers’ bungling”.