One message circulated in the group declared: “WE NEED YOUR HELP… It has come to our attention that Green MP, Ellie Chowns plans to vote in favour of the upcoming 'National Security Bill', which is a pre-step to the proscription [of] the IRGC.”
The post defended the Iranian organisation, which has been linked to the mass killing of Iranian civilians during anti-regime protests in the past year, stating: “The IRGC are the main force defending the peoples of Iran against Western imperial violence.
“Proscribing them – and any national liberation movement – is simply falling in line with imperialism.”
The IRGC is designated a terrorist organisation by multiple countries, including the United States and European Union, and is a global sponsor of terrorism via its proxy cells.
In 2024, the director-general of MI5, Ken McCallum, confirmed that at least 20 IRGC-backed terror plots had been foiled in the UK since 2022.
While in opposition, Labour backed moves to proscribe the IRGC, and the National Security Bill is set to advance that policy.
However, in a letter circulated by Green activists, the bill, which will reach its third reading on Wednesday, is condemned as being at odds with Green Party values.
The document, distributed by Sophus Magill, a Green councillor on the Isle of Wight, states: “I am writing to express my profound disappointment and alarm regarding your reported intention to support the National Security Bill, which is a pre-step to the proscription of the IRGC.”
Wootton Bridge Parish Councillor, Sophus Magill, distributed the letter to members in a bid to lobby Chowns[Missing Credit]
As members who look to the party for “principled opposition to authoritarianism and war,” the letter continues, Chowns’ “stance” indicates a “deeply troubling departure from the values I believed you stood for”.
It goes on: “The IRGC is not a terrorist organisation; it is a national institution on the front line of a brutal, illegal war fuelled and cheered on by our own government, protecting its nation and people from Western warmongering.”
Another section describes the IRGC as Iran’s “main defender” against “illegal wars”.
The letter also claims that supporting IRGC proscription would make the Green Party complicit in imperialism: “To support this proscription is to support this genocidal Israeli plan… It makes the Green Party complicit in the violence of US imperialism.”
Screenshots show a member posting as “AT”, understood to be Ashley Tubb, sharing the letter and telling members: “There you go. Please do make the words your own, however.”
After another member asks whether the letter was in AT’s “own words”, AT replies: “It is yes and thank you!”
In another message, AT said: “The IRGC are by definition part of a national liberation movement... They liberated themselves from a US puppet regime of the Shah in 1979. The IRGC were one of the organisations leading that.”
AT also claimed the protests earlier this year against the IRGC “were instigated and armed by the Americans and the Zionists".
“The IR [Islamic Republic] have released a comprehensive list of those killed during these protests. They claim most were either military or police murdered by the Zionists/American armed militia forces or they were innocent Iranians killed by said militias.”
AT added: “Personally, I'd much rather trust their numbers/background compared to the Western media, who have covered and cheered on a genocide for nearly 3 years, the American intelligence agencies or anyone associated with the Zionist entity in Palestine.”
The campaign was pushed into another Green Party announcement channel, and members were urged to act immediately: “Sorry to be a pain and spam, but people need to action the above asap!”
The exchange in the Greens for Palestine chat also reveals frustration among some activists towards the Greens’ leader.
One member asked whether Polanski had confirmed the party’s position on the vote “or is he sitting on the fence again”.
Another wrote: “Our support for the party is not unconditional. They need to represent us, our wants and needs, in parliament. And it’s up to us to tell them what we want.”
Discussion turned to Polanski’s previous support for a London Assembly motion condemning Iranian security forces for killing civilians.
“That’s a f***ing betrayal in my book,” one member responded, adding that an article about the motion condemning IRGC violence “is from the 5th of March this year, as in 6 days after the USIsraeli [sic] machine started bombing their homeland”.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski speaks during a rally on March 28, 2026 in London (Image: Getty)[Missing Credit]
Another group member alleged that the arson attack on Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green was a “false flag Israeli” operation.
They wrote: “They are on orders from Israhell [sic] to spread a disinformation campaign about IRGC ahead of a much-wanted proscription, to effectively neutralise all effective resistance, and to make it 'antisemetic' to point out that IRGC wasn't involved and that all the evidence instead points to events like the ambulances attacks being a false flag Israeli intelligence operation with the co-operation of the British state, the media and Zionist organisations.”
It comes as the JC revealed the Greens’ pro-Palestine group demanded Jewish members of the party liberate their minds from “the supremacist grip of Zionism” and refused a request by Jewish Greens for mediation to resolve their differences over a motion defining Zionism “as racism”.
In response to the story, Tubb said: “It is enshrined in international law that Iran has the right to defend itself. I oppose the proscription of any organisation because proscription simply functions to limit the British public's right to freedom of speech, assembly and association.”
The JC has approached Chowns, Magill and the Green Party for comment.
