Boris, quit d**king about & do your job
Bad boy actor tells Foreign Secretary to get jailed Billy home
CORONATION Street star Charlie Lawson has launched a blistering attack on Boris Johnson over the fate of a Scot stuck in an Indian jail.
The actor, who played bad boy Jim McDonald in the ITV soap until 2014, told the Foreign Secretary to “quit d**king about” and get to work to bring Billy Irving and his comrades home.
Former paratrooper Billy is one of six British ex-military men – dubbed the Chennai Six – who were detained in 2013 after the Indian coastguard accused them of carrying guns without permits while working on an anti-piracy vessel.
The 37-year-old, from Connel in Argyll, was jailed for five years last January.
In a video on social media, Charlie said: “There is absolutely no good reason for people not to get involved in the Release the Chennai Six campaign.
“There are six men who were doing their job over there protecting ships from piracy. Now they are rotting in jail on stupid, trumped-up, bloody charges.”
He then turned his fury on Johnson, who earlier this month was reprimanded on a visit to a Sikh temple in Bristol for talking about alcohol in the sacred building.
Charlie said: “Boris, do yourself a favour, quit d** king about inside a temple with a Sikh turban on, making a t**t of yourself and insulting people.
“Get out there and do your job.
“There is no way it’s going to affect trade or anything else. Just bring these men home – ex-soldiers, veterans who were doing their job.”
The men have always protested their innocence. But despite producing papers that confirmed their weapons were held legally, they were jailed.
They are now awaiting an appeal verdict.
The Record revealed last week that Billy’s fiancee Yvonne MacHugh and his two-year-old son William paid him a surprise visit in Puzhal prison, near Chennai, for his birthday on Saturday.
Yvonne, 28, from Neilston, Renfrewshire, said: “If his appeal is unsuccessful, Billy may apply for a prisoner transfer to Scotland.” Reef under threat The Great Barrier Reef lost 29 per cent of its corals last year. The impact of rising sea temperatures on the natural wonder off Australia was worse than experts had feared.