The husband of a jailed British-Iranian mother has said his demonstration against her imprisonment outside the country’s embassy has triggered a backlash from officials.

Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been jailed in Iran since 2016, told HuffPost UK he has faced hostile behaviour outside the country’s outpost in west London as he entered the fourth day of a hunger strike aimed at securing her release.

He alleges that officials have called police to report him, installed metal barricades between him and the embassy building, and sprayed it with liquid, and more recently embarked on loud maintenance work in an effort to stop him talking to the press.

Ratcliffe said in addition to the tactics, he has now faced claims from Iran’s ambassador in the UK, Hamid Baeidinejad, that his hunger strike – which is timed to coincide with his wife’s refusal of food in an Iranian prison this week – is a hoax.

He said: “We’ve certainly got under their skin which of course is the aim. To say, listen, Nazanin is suffering behind prison walls, no-one can see her, but it’s important that people can see what she’s going through. What the [Iranian] regime is doing to her, and it’s important the regime wakes up and acknowledges that this is an innocent person that needs to be released.”

Baeidinejad wrote on Twitter that BBC News had documented a “fictitious scene” with Ratcliffe in front of the embassy on Sunday.

And the ambassador has claimed in further tweets that Ratcliffe is blockading the embassy’s front door and attracted numerous media outlets to the street outside.

On Tuesday, HuffPost UK observed workmen emerging from the embassy’s basement at the exact time we began an interview with Ratcliffe. One workman began using a loud sanding tool as our journalists put questions to Ratcliffe.

Aside from the apparent hostilities, Ratcliffe said that joining Nazanin in refusing food for the first time had brought the couple closer together. 

He said: “It’s true to say we’re stronger together. It’s easier for me to go through it knowing that she’s going through it. It’s easier for her to go through it knowing I’m going through it. It’s not that easy to go through it.

“But knowing that we’re together and that we will be together whatever gets thrown at us. Thank you to all the supporters who help us maintain that.”

He added that Nazanin has lost weight and had her blood pressure checked in recent days.

The couple’s young daughter, Gabriella, remains in Iran with Nazanin’s parents.

Ratcliffe said that he hoped Tuesday evening’s Conservative leadership debate would see candidates quizzed about Nazanin’s case.

“I look forward to any questions being raised about Nazanin and any questions being raised about the protection of British citizens abroad generally,” he said.

Supportive letters addressed simply to the “tent outside the Iranian embassy” have reached Ratcliffe, who is joined by a small contingent of supporters on the pavement.

A couple sat alongside the British-Iranian comedian, Shappi Khorsandi, said they had decided they wanted to keep Ratcliffe company in an act of solidarity.

Roselle Bentheim, from north London, said she wished there could be “more empathy” in political discourse.

“This is for all people held by governments who became a casualty in someone else’s war,” she said. “Empathy and shame are things that are getting lost in public discourse.”

Ratcliffe couldn’t say how long his hunger strike would progress. But he maintained his message that Nazanin is innocent of the charges levelled by Iran’s government – that she travelled to the country as a spy – and that she should be released immediately.

“It’s hard and the physical consequences are that you get slower, you stop getting hungry exactly and a little bit dizzy and giddy if that makes sense,” he said of the impact going without food was having.

And he conveyed his thanks for those who had thus far supported him.

“We’ve had many, many people come down. Day one a few, day two some came back,” Ratcliffe added. “Just knowing that we’re cared for, that people are here. And that people remember Nazanin and want her to be home. It’s lovely.”