On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of experiencing something that is all too rare in politics. Standing outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, which is adjacent to the UK Treasury, to show my solidarity with Richard Ratcliffe, who at the time was on day 18 of his hunger strike.

In a bid to get the UK Government to take seriously his plight and to engage with Iranian officials in the hope that they will release his wife Nazanin, who has been imprisoned for over five years on trumped up charges of plotting against the Iranian regime, members of all opposition parties came together to show their support for Richard.

In what can only be described as the best of politics in which opposition members put their differences aside and replaced political point scoring with compassion, decency and understanding. It has restored my faith in humanity and in politics, more so at a time when trust for elected officials is at an all time low.

Journalists are rightly busy pursuing MPs who have been moonlighting and doing other jobs which clearly doesn’t sit well with the electorate. Let’s be honest, though, no one is really shocked as we have been here before with allegations of sleaze, corruption or members profiting from parliament at the expense of representing their constituencies.

It’s high time that Parliament took ownership of this issue and legislated to prohibit members from undertaking work outside of parliament – a simple solution which I think would get majority support in the chamber. Who knows, maybe we will get a better calibre of politicians who actually want to be there to represent their constituents and don't see it as a staging post for personal gain. But, for me, this is a side issue and one that parliament can easily resolve if it has the will.

For me, the real issue is that of Richard Ratcliffe who I met this week. He's enduring a hunger strike to attempt to get Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, Foreign Secretary, to undertake meaningful engagement with the Iranian Government.

As I write this, I can’t comprehend the toll that this must be having on his mental and physical wellbeing but his resolve is admirable. The lack of action and commitment from the UK Government reinforces the perception that the nasty party is back. One that is more interested in trade law than international human rights. Even then, their inability to secure any meaningful trade deal is quite startling.

This government is so inept that they would rather play at politics than actually do the right thing, which is paying the debt that is owed to Iran. In the words of former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, “this is a debt and we as a country pay our debts. We need to pay.”

As a result of this inaction, our standing on the international stage is so diminished that Britain is quickly becoming Little Britain and I suspect that Boris Johnson’s comments to delegates at COP26 about Britain not being a corrupt country did more harm than good.

Let’s not forget that when Boris Johnson was Foreign Secretary his comments about Ms Ratcliffe teaching people journalism in Iran were used by the authorities against Ms Ratcliffe, and turned into trumped up charges of propaganda. This has had a profound impact not just on Ms Ratcliffe but also Richard and their seven-year-old daughter Gabriella, who last saw her mum when she was 22 months old. Let that sink in for a moment.

It is about doing the right thing and re-uniting a mother with her daughter and a wife with her husband. It's that simple.