George Galloway’s former aide has said he is “happy to be given a gun” and fight for Iran while speaking from the Islamic Republic, the JC can reveal.
Hussain Shafiei expressed his support for the regime in an interview and declared: “We are fighting back.”
The former election coordinator for Galloway’s Workers Party is one of a number of British residents who have travelled to Iran to support the Islamic Republic.
Social media influencers from the UK attended the regime’s six-day ceremonial funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month. They included a reality TV personality, a trainee lawyer and a Shia preacher.
One of 'Uncle Hoz's' videos, shared in March 2026 (YouTube)[Missing Credit]
Politicians and security experts have now told the JC that travelling to Iran and broadcasting pro-regime content poses a threat to UK national security.
One critic has branded the influencers “soft-power warriors” for the Islamic Republic. Speaking from Iran on a podcast last month, Shafiei said: “I am standing with the people of Iran. They are attacking our boats in the Persian Gulf area; we are fighting back.”
The British-Iranian activist added: “I’m here – whatever happens happens – and I am standing like a person that is quite happy to be given a gun and go and stand post as they say and do my bit for my country.”
Days later, dozens of Britons travelled to Tehran to attend and document Khamenei’s funeral, alongside official delegations from Russia, China, Afghanistan, Qatar and Turkey.
Among them were British influencers sharing pro-regime messaging with hundreds of thousands of followers.
They include Nottingham trainee lawyer Ammar Kazmi, who posted from beside Khamenei’s casket, and described the “thousands upon thousands of red flags” as “the flag of revenge”. He told his 19,700 followers on X that “people’s antipathy and indeed righteous anger and hatred against the United States of America and the Zionist entity cannot be disputed”.
Ammar Kazmi (X/AmmarKazmi)[Missing Credit]
Calling Khamenei “one of the great men of history”, Kazmi shared videos in which he praised the supreme leader for spearheading the “axis of resistance” and said his death was an “incalculable” loss for those who viewed him as “a beacon of global resistance against US imperialism and Zionism”.
Khamenei ruled Iran for 36 years, overseeing the expansion of Tehran’s proxy network decades of confrontation with the West and the brutal suppression of domestic dissent. He was killed in US and Israeli airstrikes at the start of the war with Iran on February 28.
Kazmi said Khamenei’s “soul and legacy” would “live on”, adding that he had “lived and died for the Palestinian cause, the anti-Zionist movement and the axis of resistance”.
Previously a worker at left-wing Labour faction Momentum and a parliamentary communications officer, Kazmi has expressed support for the Iranian regime, criticised reformists within its political system and praised Tehran for bringing the “US-Zionist Empire to its knees”. He also claimed Sir Keir Starmer governed Britain on Israel’s “behalf”.
Also attending the funeral was former BBC Apprentice contestant and reality TV personality Bushra Shaikh, acting as a self-professed journalist. She said: “Iran has shown me nothing but respect and love as a foreign reporter.”
Posting to more than 260,000 followers on X and Instagram, Shaikh rejected suggestions that images of the funeral had been manipulated to exaggerate numbers, saying: “Those people in the West who did not believe the images... there are seas of people.”
Bushra Shaikh posted on Instagram on the first day of Khamenei's funeral (Instagram)[Missing Credit]
Irish comedian Tadhg Hickey filmed streets with thousands of mourners in black waving red flags. “The entire streets of Mashan are flooded with human beings saying absolutely no to US imperialism. I don’t think I have ever seen such a beautiful beautiful site”.
“Unless it is all AI, unless I am AI,” he quipped.
In another clip, Hickey – who also attended the funeral of President Ebrahim Raisi in 2024 – led chants of “death to Israel” in Farsi, sharing the video with his more than 200,000 followers on X. He later told the JC he “would have shouted it a little bit louder”.
Also attending the funeral was preacher and libido-boosting oils salesman Hassan Makke, who described Khamenei as “a true miracle of a man” with “deep knowledge, political insight and wisdom”.
Makke, who was recently questioned by police over his Spiritual Warrior Camps for young men, told his 162,000 Instagram followers that Khamenei was “the hero of my life”.
Shafiei himself has long been an outspoken supporter of the Islamic Republic.
Posting content under the name “Uncle Hoz”, he argued during one podcast that Tehran should have developed nuclear weapons.
“I personally wish to God that they had built a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“But the Iranians have always chosen what they think is the right thing to do and the right thing for them is to not have nuclear weapons; it’s a mistake in my opinion, but it’s not my decision.”
He has rejected descriptions of the Iranian regime as terrorist, saying support for Hezbollah and Hamas was “an act of resistance”.
Speaking about Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei, Shafiei said: “I realise actually these guys are revolutionaries, these guys refuse to bend the knee, these guys are the kind of people I wish I was. They have gravitas, they have charisma, because they were telling America to ‘f*** off’ before everyone else was doing it.”
George Galloway (Getty Images)Getty Images
The revelations come after Galloway threatened to stand in the Greater Manchester mayoral election, although his party later said he would not because he could not return to Britain without risking police detention.
The former Rochdale MP and his wife were stopped by counter-terrorism officers last September before being released without charge.
Following Khamenei’s death, Galloway appeared on Iranian state broadcaster Press TV to offer condolences.
In another interview, Galloway spoke with Iranian academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi about the “red flag of revenge” displayed by mourners.
Marandi, who served as a volunteer in the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War and has been repeatedly used as a pundit by the BBC, told Galloway: “This was an extraordinary show of force.”
The UK recently proscribed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), making support for it punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Separately, the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) requires people acting on behalf of foreign governments or state-controlled bodies to register their activities, with Iran placed in the highest tier of risk.
Labour MP Mark Sewards, parliamentary chair of Labour Friends of Israel, described the influencers as the regime’s “soft-power warriors”.
“They are spreading hate, pro-regime propaganda and exploiting online platforms to promote extremist ideologies,” he said.
“We welcome the UK’s recent steps to designate the IRGC and to ban Islamist extremists from entering the country, but Iran’s influencers are operating online with impunity.
“We must work quickly to close down the online loopholes permeating destabilising, destructive content.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the JC: “Anyone supporting the appalling Iranian regime is a risk to our national security. The regime has murdered over 30,000 of their own citizens, sponsored terrorism around the world and tried to obtain an atomic bomb.
“These so-called influencers risk radicalising people here in the UK and beyond. If they are not British citizens, we shouldn’t be letting them back into the country.”
Security experts warned that the funeral highlighted Tehran’s growing use of foreign influencers to shape opinion abroad.
Counter-terrorism specialist Roger Macmillan said: “Dozens of British citizens, some with followings in the hundreds of thousands, travelled to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s recent funeral and are actively amplifying the regime’s narrative straight into UK timelines, praising a man responsible for decades of repression and terror sponsorship as a hero and a martyr.
“If any of these individuals are receiving direction, funding, or coordination from Iranian state bodies... that activity may fall squarely within what the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme was designed to capture.
“Given the IRGC’s recent designation, it’s worth asking whether the authorities are actively looking at whether these relationships meet the registration threshold,” MacMillan, the former director of security for Iran International, added.
A Community Security Trust spokesperson said: “Khamenei was the leader of a regime that has spent decades promoting extremism, sponsoring terrorist groups and spreading antisemitism far beyond Iran’s borders.
“Given Iran’s record of supporting terrorism and hostile activity against Jewish, Israeli and Western interests, it is concerning that people from Britain would travel to pay tribute to somebody who stood at the centre of that regime.”
A Workers Party spokesperson said: “Hoz has not been the National Election Coordinator of the Workers Party for more than a year. George Galloway is not running for the Mayoral election.”
Shafiei, Shaikh, Makke, Dewji-Datoo and Kazim were approached for comment.
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