IRGC to be proscribed as national security threat

Starmer said that the measures, combined with the £250 million funding increase in security funding, showed he was: “Backing words with action – and ensuring Jewish communities can live in this country free from fear.”

He went on: “A criminal group called the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right has publicly claimed seven attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities, and sitting behind them were members of Iran’s IRGC”, Starmer said.

“Of course, the IRGC itself has a long history of using proxies and criminal networks to target people in the UK, including our Jewish communities.

“So today, under our new state threat powers, we’re designating this criminal group, the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, and we’re designating the IRGC.”

He added: “Anyone found supporting or assisting these groups will now face up to 14 years in prison.”

In a written statement to Parliament on Monday, Angela Eagle, the security minister, confirmed that the government would be seeking Parliament’s approval to proscribe the two groups, alongside a separate organisation, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Volunteer Corps (GRU VC), an international arm of Russian military intelligence.

“For a body to be designated, the home secretary must reasonably believe that it is, or has been, involved in foreign power threat activity and must consider that designation is necessary to protect the safety or interests of the United Kingdom,” she wrote.

“Having considered the available evidence and taken advice from across government and operational partners, the home secretary is satisfied that the statutory test is met in respect of the following three bodies”

“The United Kingdom has identified activity linked to the IRGC involving threats to life and intimidation on UK soil. In January 2024, the UK announced sanctions targeting Iranian officials responsible for threat to kill on UK soil and criminal gangs who do the regime’s bidding overseas.

"The Iranian officials designated under these sanctions were members of IRGC Unit 840, which was exposed in relation to plots to assassinate two Iran International TV journalists in the UK”.

Eagle continued: “The Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), otherwise known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyah, has publicly claimed seven attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities, and Persian-language media, including the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on 23 March.

“Sitting behind IMCR were members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, who almost certainly directed IMCR attacks across Europe.

Although the IRGC had already been sanctioned by the government, Eagle claimed that the designation of both groups would “strengthen our ability to disrupt and take enforcement action against those supporting or facilitating this type of activity, and reinforces the UK’s position that these malign actions are unacceptable”.

Reacting to the announcement, the Jewish Leadership Council said: “We are pleased that the Home Secretary will use the National Security (State Threats) Act to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"This is a step we have urged successive British governments to take for many years, given the lethal threat the Iranian regime poses to Jewish communities, Israeli nationals and Iranian dissidents in this country.

"We also welcome the designation of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the group who have claimed responsibility for the spate of arson attacks targeting synagogues and Jewish charities earlier this year.

“These measures represent an important step towards protecting the communities most at risk from hostile Iranian activity. We will continue to work with the government to ensure that they are robustly enforced, and that the full range of powers available to the government are used to disrupt the Iranian regime's malign influence and keep the British public safe.”

Meanwhile, Greg Smith MP and Lord Pickles, Conservative Friends of Israel’s parliamentary chairs, both welcomed the announcement, but claimed that it had “taken far too long to get to this point”.

"If this organisation's malign and destructive tendencies weren't clear before, the brutal suppression of the mass protests in Iran earlier this year, indiscriminate attacks on our allies, including the Gulf states and Israel, plus the IRGC's involvement in attacks on our Jewish communities in Britain, have demonstrated the urgency of this ban, they said.

“The government now needs to use these powers to relentlessly pursue every organisation and individual currently operating in the UK with any connection - financial or otherwise - to the IRGC, including so-called charities and media organisations which act as mouthpieces for this tyrannical terrorist group."

Similarly, Roger Macmillan, a security expert and former director of security at Iran International, the dissident TV station previously targeted by the IRGC, described proscription as “the floor, not the ceiling”.

He told the JC: “The real fight now is against the network around it: the front charities, the so-called Islamic centres and education centres that launder its ideology into British communities, the online broadcasters and the social media influencers who do Tehran's work for it. None of that stops because one organisation has been added to a schedule.

"Proscription of the IRGC must now be matched with the political will and resources to support the police and the security services to actively go after these networks and bring people to justice, not just designate an organisation on paper. Today is the right first step, many years too late. The hard work starts now.”

Starmer, who will depart as prime minister later this month, exclusively revealed to the JC that he intended to introduce legislation to ban the IRGC back in April, following attacks on the Jewish community.