Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at Parliament as she prepares to speak for first time since release

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Freed Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has today taken aim at the UK Government over the handling of her release from Iran, asking: ‘How many foreign secretaries does it take to get me out?’.

In her first televised speech since her return to the UK, the British-Iranian national said UK officials should have secured her release from Iran ‘six years ago’.

It comes after the she was reunited with her husband Richard and seven-year-old daughter Gabriella on Thursday morning at RAF Brize Norton after ‘six years of hell’ in Tehran. 

Her release was secured last week after the UK government last week settled a historical £400million debt owed to Iran over a cancelled 1970s order for British tanks.

Today, her husband Richard, who has campaigned tirelessly for her release since 2016, tentatively praised the efforts of the Government in helping secure her return.

But sitting beside her husband Richard, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who turned up to the media briefing wearing yellow and blue, the colours of Ukraine, questioned why it had taken so long for the UK to get her home. 

‘The journey back was tough. I grant what Richard said about the Foreign Secretary, but I don’t really agree with him on that level,’ she told the press conference.

‘I have seen five Foreign Secretaries over the course of six years. That is unprecedented given the politics of the UK.

‘I love you Richard, I respect what you believe. But I was told many many times: “Oh, we are going to get you home”. That never happened. 

‘So there was a time when I thought: “You know what, I’m never going to trust you”, because I’ve been told many many times that I’m going to be taken home.

‘But that never happened. How many Foreign Secretaries is it going to take for someone to get out, five?

‘It should have been one of them eventually. So now, here we are. What happened now should have happened six years ago.

‘We all know how I came home. I don’t know the details. What took me home on the 17 March 2022 was the same day I left London, 17 March 2016, to go on holiday, I never returned back on the flight I was meant to.

‘It shouldn’t have taken six years. And I think we have gone through a lot, it has been a tough journey.’ 

Earlier Richard praised the Government’s efforts in getting his wife home from Iran, where she had been imprisoned on false espionage charges.

He said: ‘I have lots of thank-yous to say. Thank you to the Government. Thank you to the Foreign Secretary did promise to get Nazanin home and she did.

‘That has been a long struggle, lots of people working behind the scenes. We haven’t always agreed, but we had lovely three days with them after Nazanin came home, very nurturing, very kind people, and they got her home.

‘It is for us over, a new chapter, a process of healing and recovery and going back to normal.’ 

He added that he was ‘immensely pleased’ to have his wife home, saying: ‘It has been a long struggle. I’m immensely pleased and proud of my wife, proud to have her home, starting a new chapter, and get to be a normal family again.’

However he said it was ‘nice to be retiring’ from the public-eye after six years of campaigning, including a 21-day hunger strike.

Ahead of the media event, chaired by local MP Tulip Siddiq, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was seen arriving at Portcullis House with the Hampstead MP, her husband Richard her daughter Gabriella.

Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, also held a short private meeting with her, Richard and Ms Siddiq, prior to the press conference.

It comes after Ms Siddiq shared an image of her and the charity volunteer following her return to the UK last week.

She said: ‘We can’t stop smiling!! Incredible to have my brave constituent Nazanin back home. She’s eternally grateful to all of you for campaigning so hard for her release.’ 

The television cameras crowded outside the family’s North London house waiting to capture her much anticipated return home  on Thursday were sorely disappointed to discover the family had instead been whisked away to a safehouse. 

The safehouse in question was in fact Dorneywood – an 18th century mansion sat on a sprawling estate which includes a swimming pool, croquet lawn and 215 acres of lush green woodland, the Telegraph reported.

Typically used by Chancellors of the Exchequer, the grace-and-favour home is owned by the National Trust and the Prime Minister can permit any member of the government to occupy it.

Some of the home’s previous occupants are current Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Health Secretary Sajid Javid, and former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott – who famously enjoyed a game of croquet on the front lawn.

The family enjoyed two days of peace at the mansion, with Nazanin and Richard getting reacquainted before cooking pizza in the industrial-size kitchen with seven-year-old Gabriella.

But the family are yet to return to their West Hampstead home, and were yesterday relocated to another safehouse, location undisclosed. 

A smiling picture of Gabriella and her mother cooking up a pizza in Dorneywood’s huge kitchen was shared on social media by Richard Ratcliffe and swiftly reposted by the family’s local MP, Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, who has also campaigned relentlessly for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s freedom. 

Siddiq tweeted: ‘Nazanin told me that this is what she missed most while she was imprisoned – every day moments with her little girl. Today was Gabriella’s choice of making homemade pizzas for lunch’. 

But the pair were asked to take the images down by Foreign Office officials over fears their location could be compromised.

The family have now been moved on to another undisclosed location with the family of 67-year-old Anoosheh Ashoori, who was also released alongside Nazanin earlier this week.  

Nazanin landed back on British soil in the early hours of Thursday, along with fellow dual national Ashoori, after the UK finally agreed to settle a long-standing debt to Iran.

The 44-year-old was detained on security charges in 2016 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at Imam Khomeini airport after a holiday to Iran during which she introduced her daughter to her parents.

She was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.

Ashoori, 67, was arrested in August 2017 while visiting his elderly mother in Tehran. He was detained in Evin prison for almost five years, having been accused of spying.

Both have consistently and vigorously denied the allegations.

Their release came after months of intensive diplomatic negotiations between London and Tehran.

Mr Ratcliffe, who campaigned tirelessly for his wife’s release and was instrumental in securing her freedom, told the Times that Nazanin would like to focus on being a full-time mother in the immediate future but that she has not ruled out returning to a campaigning role.

He told the newspaper: ‘People come out with an extra will to make up for lost time and to stop others having to battle against the bad guys that they feel are responsible.

‘And that can take different directions. While I’m sure she’s happy, I can’t tell where her head will be in six months. I’m sure she’s feeling a lot less angry today than she was a week ago. There’s nothing like freedom for changing your perspective.’

Nazanin’s neighbours told MailOnline that she cannot wait to return home and take Gabrielle to school for the first time like any other mother. 

Her parents-in-law John and Barbara have joked that their son’s North London home needs to be cleaned up urgently because it is in an ‘appalling’ state after years of living without her – and they are considering heading up from Hampshire to do it themselves.

Nazanin’s friends and neighbours in North London said Richard and Gabriella are ‘obviously absolutely overjoyed that mummy is home. There is so much going on and they need time to adjust but Richard said that they just wanted to settle back into normal life – taking walks in the park, going out for a coffee.’

The neighbour added: ‘Richard said that Nazanin was most excited about taking Gabriella to school in the morning and picking her up at the end of the day like any other parent. I’m so happy for them.’

Another neighbour said: ‘They left here on Wednesday afternoon and Richard said that they were unlikely to be back for a couple of days. I think that now they are all back together, coming home for the first time will feel like taking their first steps towards returning to normality.’

Nazanin worked as a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly.

In an interview by the charity after her release, Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Antonio Zappulla described her as ‘a very dedicated and bubbly colleague’, adding: ‘I didn’t know just how resilient she is. I have nothing but admiration. Nazanin’s life was upended, but her spirit was never broken. She is a truly remarkable woman, with a truly remarkable family.’

Nazanin’s two days of bliss in Dorneywood with her family came after Channel 4 said it will air a documentary about Richard Ratcliffe’s campaign to free his wife over the past six years.

The single-episode documentary, called Nazanin, follows the life of Mr Ratcliffe as he balanced a political campaign with raising Gabriella.

The broadcaster said it includes how the youngster coped with separation from her mother, and the moment Mr Ratcliffe realised her detention was linked to a £400 million debt dating back to the 1970s.

It also follows the final days of negotiations with the British Foreign Office in Tehran and Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s journey home.

A spokesperson for Channel 4 said: ‘Nazanin is an intimate, access-driven documentary – part love story, part political thriller. It has a human story with a big heart and mixes original, observational filming with never before seen material filmed by Nazanin herself about her ordeal.’

Nazanin will air later this year.