Quick Read:

• Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced Iran’s Revolutionary Guard will be proscribed as a national security threat.
• Supporting the group, even expressing a positive opinion of it, becomes an offence carrying up to 14 years in prison.
• Two other groups, the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR) and Russia’s GRU volunteer corps, are also being banned.
• The move follows MI5’s discovery of at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots against people in the UK in the past year.

The British government has announced that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard will officially be designated a threat to national security, giving police and intelligence agencies sweeping new powers to prosecute anyone linked to the group.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood revealed the decision in a written statement to Parliament, confirming that support for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, ranging from voicing approval to actively assisting its operatives, will now be a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years behind bars.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is not being proscribed alone. Two additional groups, the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR) and the volunteer corps linked to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, are also being outlawed under the same new powers, which target espionage, sabotage, foreign interference, and physical attacks carried out on British soil.

According to officials, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has been linked to seven attacks on UK locations connected to Jewish and Israeli communities. Among them was the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green in March, an incident the IMCR publicly claimed responsibility for.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who had earlier promised to fast-track the National Security (State Threats) Act, said the government would “never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence” on its streets. He added that the new powers would make it “easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain.”

If Parliament approves the regulations this week, anyone found carrying out acts of sabotage, including arson, on behalf of the proscribed groups could face life imprisonment. Crucially, prosecutors will no longer need to prove a direct foreign power connection in every case, a change expected to make convictions significantly easier to secure.

Mahmood didn’t mince words, stating that Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on British soil, and that rapidly designating the three groups would ensure those working for them are tracked down and prosecuted.

Intelligence agency MI5 reportedly uncovered at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots against individuals in the UK over the past year alone, with the IRGC identified as central to Tehran’s operations targeting the Jewish community and Iranian dissidents abroad.

Formed after Iran’s 1979 revolution to defend the country’s Islamic system, the Revolutionary Guard has since grown into a powerful state arm with an estimated 190,000 active personnel and influence stretching well beyond Iran’s borders. It is already listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States, Canada, and Australia, and was added to the European Union’s terror list in January following its role in violent crackdowns on Iranian protesters.

Britain had previously lagged behind its Western allies on formally designating the group, but officials now argue tougher powers are necessary given the rising scale and complexity of state-backed aggression on UK soil. Home Office minister Angela Eagle described the IRGC as a central pillar of Iran’s security apparatus, answerable directly to the Supreme Leader, with a reach that extends into intelligence activity, proxy warfare, and efforts to project Iranian influence abroad.