MPs have backed new legislation which paves the way for a ban on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the National Security (State Threats) Bill will be a “powerful tool to tackle hostile states and those who act on their behalf”.
It aims to make it easier for the UK to combat threats from state-linked organisations, by designating them as a national security risk.
People working for such groups and their proxies could face up to 14 years in jail, under the new powers.
MPs passed the Bill unopposed at third reading on Wednesday. It will now be sent to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.
In the Commons, Mahmood said: “The threat from terrorism is growing and, at the same time, we face foreign powers acting with greater hostility than we have seen at any time since the Cold War.
“It is essential in the face of this growing threat that we equip those we expect to protect us with the tools they need to do the job, at the moment they need it most.”
The legislation follows a recommendation from the government’s terror law watchdog Jonathan Hall KC, who said existing laws did not cover state-backed groups.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged to fast-track the Bill following a series of attacks on the Jewish community in recent months.
However, the Conservatives criticised the government for only allocating one day in the Commons for MPs to debate it.
Shadow Home Office Minister Alicia Kearns raised concerns it would “collapse” in a courtroom, due to a lack of line-by-line scrutiny in Parliament.
She added: “The case for these powers was made well over a year ago. The House does not exist to wave through legislation. We exist to test it and to find the weaknesses before our enemies do.”
However, Mahmood echoed the prime minister by insisting there is a “need for speed” following recent events and “the threats the country faces”.
Kearns also called for the maximum prison sentence for those working for hostile states to be increased to 25 years, branding it a “kind of treason”. She argued the move would match measures in Australia, which listed the IRGC last November.
Dame Angela Eagle, a Home Office minister, responded that the 14-year sentence fits with the National Security Act, and both could be increased “if we were minded to do so”.
Conservative former ministers Tom Tugendhat and Sir Jeremy Wright also argued against the fast pace at which the Bill progressed.
Tugendhat said the Bill is seeking “the rapid answer rather than the complete one”, adding: “What it misses, very slightly, is that challenge that is bound to come.”
Sir Jeremy said: “Jonathan Hall KC produced an excellent report, most of which we will all agree with, but he did that in May of last year, so the home secretary can’t have this both ways.
“Either this is a desperately urgent matter, in which case the Government should have brought forward legislation long before now, or it is not. In which case we should have longer than a day to consider it.”
In an attempt to block the Bill going through all its parliamentary stages in one day, the Conservatives pushed a vote on the allocation of time on Wednesday.
This bid was rejected by 233 votes to 94, majority 139.
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