Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will be designated a threat to national security, banning support for the group that has been linked to death threats, attacks and intimidation in the UK.
Mahmood will use new government powers under the National Security Act to make expressing a positive opinion of the IRGC or assisting them an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The move comes after MI5 identified at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots against people in the UK in the last year, with the IRGC central to Iranian state operations targeting the Jewish community and Iranian dissidents.
“UK bans support for Iran's IRGC after death threats and arson attacks linked to the group on British soil.”
Two other groups are also being proscribed: the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), which publicly claimed responsibility for the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on March 23, and the volunteer corps of Russia's GRU foreign military intelligence agency.
Announcing the new powers, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "We will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets. These new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain."
Mahmood added: "Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores. I have rapidly designated three groups so those working for them will be tracked down and put behind bars."
If approved by Parliament this week, those conducting acts of sabotage including arson on behalf of these groups could face life imprisonment. The change means prosecutors will no longer need to establish a foreign power connection in every case, making it easier to build cases.
Designating the three organisations comes after years of debate over proscribing the IRGC. In 2023, the government chose sanctions instead of a full proscription, amid concerns about diplomatic fallout with Tehran. But ministers said recent threats — including plots to assassinate two Iran International TV journalists in the UK and cyber-attacks on infrastructure in Britain, Australia and Canada — prompted action.
The IRGC, set up after the 1979 revolution, now has an estimated 190,000 active personnel and has been accused by Western nations of sponsoring terrorism abroad. It has already been listed as a terror group by Australia and Canada.
