(Alamy)
4 min read
A number of Labour MPs have urged the government to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as the conflict between Iran and Israel risks further escalation.
The IRGC was introduced in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution as a branch of the country’s armed forces.
It is today one of the most powerful paramilitary organisations in the Middle East, exporting Islamic extremism abroad and supporting terrorist groups abroad like Hamas and Hezbollah.
It has been directly linked to at least 20 foiled terror plots in the UK since 2022, according to MI5’s Director General, Ken McCallum.
Labour Friends of Israel Chair Jon Pearce, MP for High Peak, said: “As was widely recognised before the conflict between Israel and Iran, the threat posed to Britain’s national security — both domestically and to our allies in the Middle East and Europe — by Tehran has never been greater.”
He added: “We now need to take urgent action at home to ensure the safety of the British people, especially those, such as the Jewish community, which Tehran has long been targeting. This involves disrupting the IRGC’s UK-based extremist networks and radicalisation efforts, as well as recognising that its operational methods mirror those of already-proscribed terrorist groups.”
David Taylor, Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead, told PoliticsHome that ministers should speed up legislation implementing the recent review of state threats by Jonathan Hall KC as a way of proscribing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.
“The IRGC is the Iranian Regime’s terror army, funding, directing, and supporting Tehran’s overseas operations, including plots right here in the UK. From targeting British Jews and dissidents to operating extremist networks and spreading radicalisation, their actions on our soil are clear and dangerous.
“The IRGC operates like a terrorist organisation. It’s time we treat it like one. Ministers should consider expediting legislation and move to ban the IRGC without delay.”
Luke Akehurst, Labour MP for North Durham, said ministers must “urgently” enact powers to proscribe the IRGC given “Iran’s action in the last 12 days”.
Mike Tapp, Labour MP for Dover, added: “We know the IRGC pose a domestic threat, we must push to put in place a programme to tackle the threat to Iranian dissidents and the Jewish community here in Britain.”
An Iranian missile fired and hit Beersheba, a city in southern Israel, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, shortly after US President Donald Trump claimed he had brokered a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. The Israeli Defence Forces carried out intense strikes in retaliation.
Trump later ordered Israel not to retaliate and claimed both Israel and Iran “don’t know what the fuck they’re doing”.
The US last week carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, which the Trump administration said did major damage to Tehran’s effort to develop a nuclear bomb. These strikes came after days of Iran and Israel attacking each other.
Labour said it would commit to proscribing the IRGC before winning power last year.
Following the July general election, however, Foreign Secretary David Lammy told The Guardian that the government was unlikely to rush such an action.
PoliticsHome understands that there has been tension between the Home Office and Foreign Office over whether to ban the IRGC outright, with the latter believed to fear it would undermine important diplomatic back channels with Tehran.
An official spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday said it was a “long-standing position we keep the list of proscribed terror organisations under constant review”.
They told PoliticsHome: “We have long been clear we will not hesitate to take the most effective measures against the Iranian regime. We have already sanctioned the IRGC in its entirety as well as individual commanders.”
Security minister Dan Jarvis in March directly addressed the threat of Iranian terror groups on British soil, after he claimed the regime was using criminal proxies to do its bidding.
He said the government would place the whole of the Iranian state – including the IRGC – onto the enhanced tier of the new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.
On Monday, the government proscribed Palestine Action after pro-Palestine activists broke into an RAF military base and vandalised military aircraft.
