UK
UK Government rejects calls to proscribe IRGC
Business Secretary Peter Kyle insisted that ministers had extended sanctions against Tehran ‘to the full extent we can’
January 12, 2026 14:11
Business Secretary Peter Kyle insisted that ministers had extended sanctions against Tehran ‘to the full extent we can’
January 12, 2026 14:11The UK Government has refused calls to proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation amid a state crackdown against mass protests in Iran, which some activists estimate have left over 1,000 people dead.
Pressure has been growing over the last fifteen days on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to add the IRGC, an arm of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces, to the list of banned terror groups as a sign of solidarity with the Iranian people, who have taken to the streets in all 31 provinces of the country to protest the regime.
Today, though, when asked on Times Radio whether a proscription was being considered, Business Secretary Peter Kyle, said: "No. You can see we’ve already used the sanctions against Iran to the full extent we can.
"Proscribing [the IRGC] like we do domestic organisations isn’t appropriate," he said, emphasising that the IRGC is a "state organisation", which differentiates it from non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah, with which it has long-term links.
“We are looking very closely at how we can support people in Iran," he added.
“Let me be very clear about this, the state has a fundamental duty to protect those protesting. We are all thinking very very deeply about those people in Iran affected by the response of the Iranian government. They must allow the space for protest to unfold.”
Instead, ministers already announced in May that they are developing a system to effectively proscribe state-backed organisations in a parallel system to the one used to ban terror groups.
Hinting strongly at the IRGC, then-Home Secretary Yvette Copper said the plan was drawn up against the “backdrop of rising numbers of Iran-linked operations on UK soil where there have been repeated warnings by ministers, the police and our security and intelligence agencies”.
The rejection of a terror proscription, though, comes after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed to "not back down" against the protesters, whom he called "vandals", and to ramp up policing.
He also accused, without evidence, the US and Israel of orchestrating the protests and bringing in foreign “terrorists” to incite unrest.
Lord Mann, the independent adviser to the government on antisemitism, said: “[Proscription] is essential [to] signal that time is up for the IRGC."
And former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith echoed the calls, saying the IRGC was “the key tool of the ayatollahs in enforcing their control”.
He wrote for the Telegraph: "It is time for the UK to increase the protection of our citizens at home whilst sending a strong, clear message to those who hope for a better future in Iran by proscribing the IRGC today.”
The former Conservative security minister, Tom Tugendhat, went further still, saying that his party should have gone ahead with proscription when it was in government.
"My own view is that the IRGC… is a standalone organisation, so I believe we should have proscribed it. I made that argument when I was in government," he told Sky News.
Both Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats have also backed the calls, with Reform leader Nigel Farage saying that Starmer should "stand up to the ayatollah”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she would have "no issue" with the potential fall of the regime, saying: “Iran would very happily wipe out the UK if it thought it could get away with it."
The IRGC has been proscribed in the US since 2019, when it was banned during President Trump's first term in office.
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