(Leah W - Emerson Fellow for StandWithUs UK 25/26 at the University of Nottingham)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sponsors terrorism as part of its mission to export the Islamic revolution globally via proxies. They have been designated a terrorist organisation by the EU, US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Ecuador, Paraguay, Ukraine and Israel. 

Iran have developed a network of centres across the UK that actively promote IRGC propaganda, host Iranian officials and IRGC commanders for lectures on fundamentalist ideology, and attempt to influence British citizens to adopt an appeasement policy towards Iran, according to the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI). 

Furthermore, between 2020 and 2022 alone, British intelligence reportedly disrupted at least 15 Iranian plots on UK soil, including potential attacks on Jewish community sites and kidnappings or assassinations, and more than 20 since then. 

After the bloody crackdown on anti-regime protests in Iran in January, Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, urged the prime minister to ban the IRGC, following a letter from more than 100 parliamentarians across the political spectrum calling on the government to accelerate the proscription of the IRGC. There is now mounting pressure on the government to bring forward planned changes to the National Security Act to allow state-sponsored groups to be proscribed. Hall proposes targeting those who support and provide help for the IRGC rather than membership, with a maximum jail sentence of 14 years, and a new criminal offence of inviting support for state agencies such as the IRGC, or displaying their flags or insignia. 

Banning the IRGC would align the UK with its closest allies, help protect the UK against malign interests and send a clear message that the UK will not tolerate terrorism, antisemitism or state-directed violence and that it will stand with the people of Iran who are bravely fighting for democracy.