Keep your word: The Government must fulfil its pre-election pledge to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under the Terrorism Act 2000

Shabana Mahmood, Home Secretary

The Iranian people are trying to throw off the yoke of oppression. Parliament’s Security and Intelligence Committee says that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is planning to kill and kidnap in Britain, targeting Jews and Iranian dissidents.

How can Britain’s response be to do nothing to stop the IRGC operating on our soil?

In early 2023, then Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in Parliament: “We would proscribe the IRGC, either by using existing terrorism legislation or by creating a new process of proscription for hostile state actors.”

In July 2023, as Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper reiterated that a Labour Government would apply a full ban on the IRGC.

Now, in 2026, the Government has declared that it is breaking its promise to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. Business Secretary Peter Kyle says that following a review of terror laws, the Government has already gone “as far as it can” with sanctions.

If that were true, they would never have promised to proscribe the IRGC. It’s just not credible. It is time for that promise to be fulfilled.

At a time of heightened threats and rising extremism, this backtracking is unconscionable.

Founded in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the IRGC is a paramilitary force that answers directly to Iran’s radical Islamist regime. Its purpose is to serve as a praetorian guard for the theocracy at home and to advance its interests abroad. That includes training, arming and supporting terrorist groups and encouraging strategic acts of terror against targets deemed hostile to the Islamic Republic.

There have recently been arrests in London allegedly linked to the IRGC. Not so long ago, an Iranian proxy was discovered to have stockpiled three tonnes of high explosives in London. They say that they want to target Jews anywhere around the world and that means British Jews. That means here in our country.

The IRGC is deadly serious; it has been behind terrorist attacks on Jews from Buenos Aires to Burgas.

It is not only terrorism that the IRGC toils to spread worldwide, but extreme hatred and Islamist ideology too.

Since 2020, eight IRGC leaders have been discovered to have spoken to students nationally, reportedly using the Islamic Students Association of Britain to arrange the lectures.

One former general in the organisation allegedly told British students that the Holocaust was “fake”. He is also reported to have encouraged his audience of students to join “the beautiful list of soldiers” who would fight and kill Jews in a coming apocalyptic war.

Another person believed to be a high-ranking IRGC member is said to have accused Jews of having “created homosexuality”. He allegedly told students that they should view themselves as “holy warriors”, promising them that the “era of the Jews” would soon be at an end.

These are not the words of obscure radicals. This is the propaganda of the military of a hostile state and one of the principal backers of terrorist organisations around the world.

The IRGC is not just a threat to Britain’s Jews, but to Britain itself.

We pride ourselves on being a nation of decency and tolerance. If we continue to allow the IRGC to operate freely in the UK, then we are failing our nation.

We need action now. Until the Home Secretary proscribes the IRGC, as has been promised, police and the security services cannot move on IRGC agents until they are actually in the process of actively preparing an act of terrorism.

The Home Secretary must give law enforcement the powers they need to keep us safe.

We cannot wait another day. The Government must proscribe the IRGC.

To: Shabana Mahmood, Home Secretary
From: [Your Name]

We are writing to call on the Government to keep its word and proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under the Terrorism Act 2000.

In early 2023, then Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in Parliament: “We would proscribe the IRGC, either by using existing terrorism legislation or by creating a new process of proscription for hostile state actors.”

In July 2023, as Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper reiterated that a Labour Government would apply a full ban on the IRGC.

Now, in 2026, the Government has declared that it is breaking its promise to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. Business Secretary Peter Kyle says that following a review of terror laws, the Government has already gone “as far as it can” with sanctions.

If that were true, the Government would never have promised to proscribe the IRGC. It’s just not credible. It is time for that promise to be fulfilled.

At a time of heightened threats and rising extremism, this backtracking is unconscionable.

Founded in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the IRGC is a paramilitary force that answers directly to Iran’s radical Islamist regime. Its purpose is to serve as a praetorian guard for the theocracy at home and to advance its interests abroad. That includes training, arming and supporting terrorist groups and encouraging strategic acts of terror against targets deemed hostile to the Islamic Republic.

There have recently been arrests in London allegedly linked to the IRGC. Not so long ago, an Iranian proxy was discovered to have stockpiled three tonnes of high explosives in London. They say that they want to target Jews anywhere around the world and that means British Jews. That means here in our country.

The IRGC is deadly serious; it has been behind terrorist attacks on Jews from Buenos Aires to Burgas.

It is not only terrorism that the IRGC toils to spread worldwide, but extreme hatred and Islamist ideology too.

Since 2020, eight IRGC leaders have been discovered to have spoken to students nationally, reportedly using the Islamic Students Association of Britain to arrange the lectures.

One former general in the organisation allegedly told British students that the Holocaust was “fake”. He is also reported to have encouraged his audience of students to join “the beautiful list of soldiers” who would fight and kill Jews in a coming apocalyptic war.

Another person believed to be a high-ranking IRGC member is said to have accused Jews of having “created homosexuality”. He allegedly told students that they should view themselves as “holy warriors”, promising them that the “era of the Jews” would soon be at an end.

These are not the words of obscure radicals. This is the propaganda of the military of a hostile state and one of the principal backers of terrorist organisations around the world.

The IRGC is not just a threat to Britain’s Jews, but to Britain itself.

We pride ourselves on being a nation of decency and tolerance. If we continue to allow the IRGC to operate freely in the UK, then we are failing our nation.

We need action now. Until you proscribe the IRGC, as has been promised, police and the security services cannot move on IRGC agents until they are actually in the process of actively preparing an act of terrorism.

You must give law enforcement the powers they need to keep us safe.

We cannot wait another day. The Government must proscribe the IRGC.