Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A BREAKDOWN
Gove dragged into scandal as Corbyn urges bungling Boris to go Spanish hate it too
our country and putting our citizens at risk for long enough. It’s time for him to go.” And London Mayor Sadiq Khan told BBC’S The Andrew Marr Show: “He must have done enough to go.”
In a tepid response, Environment Secretary Mr Gove told the same show he would have to “take her husband’s assurance” about the purpose of Ms Zaghari-ratcliffe’s trip to Iran. Shadow Cabinet minister Jon Trickett said: “Gove is more interested in protecting Johnson’s job than the liberty of a British citizen. Theresa May must ensure Nazanin does not pay the price for her ministers’ bungling.”
Ms Zaghari-ratcliffe, of Hampstead, North London, was held at Tehran airport in April 2016. She insists she was on holiday with her daughter Gabriella, now three.
She was accused of trying to overthrow the Iranian regime, which she has always denied, and sentenced to five years in jail. Iran’s state TV claimed Mr Johnson’s suggestion she had been “training journalists” was an “unintended admission” of her guilt. Labour’s Tulip Siddiq – Ms Zaghariundermining Ratcliffe’s MP – said last night that Ms Zaghari-ratcliffe “couldn’t believe [Mr Johnson] could make comments that would endanger her life”. But it is understood that Mr Ratcliffe had a “constructive” phone conversation with Mr Johnson yesterday.
Meanwhile, a photo has emerged of Mr Johnson with Joseph Mifsud – an academic at the centre of the FBI probe into Russian meddling in the US election – at a fundraising dinner in Reading, Berks, last month.
A source insisted last week that Mr Johnson “never knowingly met this person... or ever heard of him”. Yesterday, the source said: “He has had his photograph taken with countless people he does not know.”
Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair, yesterday described Mr Johnson as “an epic s***”, adding: “I hope he ends badly.”
MIMI BEKHECHI,
IF Boris would take a moment to educate himself about bull festivals and bullfighting, he would know that they are barbaric events many Spaniards are working hard to end.
It has been banned in the Canaries and Catalonia, and more than 100 Spanish cities and towns have declared opposition to it.
A poll found 76% of Spaniards show no interest in bullfights and oppose the use of public funds to support them. Heritage and entertainment never justify outright torture.