Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab Speaks to G&T on Foreign Travel and More

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has refused to deny there are tensions within the Cabinet about when to ease restrictions on foreign travel.

Speaking to Gloria De Piero and Tom Newton Dunn on Times Radio, he said:

It's absolutely right that we discuss and debate those issues very carefully. We want to open up, that's our instinct as a country. We want to be having the travel for social reasons and for economic reasons. We've been a leader in keeping supply chains open. That's been a cardinal rule principle in the way we've approached this pandemic. On the other hand, obviously it goes without saying we want to make sure we can do it safely. So I think that's the right approach. It's a balance. It's inevitably a balance. And I have to say my experience of these discussions has been excellent; really thorough, really rigorous and ultimately the Prime Minister and the team will make the decisions together.

When pushed on where he stands he said:

I'm going to maintain my strategic ambiguity and protect the discussions. But what I would say is that it's clearly a balance. We're going to make the decisions on the 17th of May but we'll publish them, we'll announce them before then...because we're into May now and I think then you'll be able to see and look at this. I don't want to create extra uncertainty by speculating or musing about it here because the decision's coming shortly.

On whether there's been any progress in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe:

I spoke to Nazanin on Wednesday. I've been speaking to the families and where possible the (other) detainees regularly to keep them abreast of the situation and also just to make sure that they've got direct access to me and to give them support and some solace and some reassurance. We're very intensively negotiating this. I have been for several months now. We recognise the IMS debt should be repaid and we're looking at arrangements for securing that. The reality in terms of dealing with the Iranians is, and I speak to foreign ministers regularly, that this takes place in parallel with and in the context of the wider negotiations of returning Iran to full compliance with JCPOA, the nuclear deal. So we of course say this is just a clear injustice. The detainees, Nazanin, all of our detainees should be released immediately. It's just a basic moral decency. They shouldn't be held as leverage in any negotiations.

Amidst the row about Boris Johnson's Downing Street flat he was asked if he has any John Lewis furnishings in his own home:

I'm sure we do. I'm terrible at answering these questions. My wife has got various people she goes and looks at and discusses these things with and I tend to rely on her advice but I like John Lewis. We buy plenty of stuff from there.

And when asked if the Prime Minister is paid enough, he said:

Yes. And look, when anyone goes into public office we do it for the honour and the privilege of serving the country. If you look consistently, including under this prime minister, we have frozen our ministerial salaries and we've done that consciously because we recognise the difficult, financial times that we're in and that we do these jobs because ultimately we are driven by a sense of public duty.