Jenrick urges Government to proscribe Iranian organisation as terrorists

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has called on the Government to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

The former minister described the IRGC, which is considered by Western allies to be a key part of Iran’s destabilising force in the Middle East, as the “world’s chief sponsor of terror”.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said Labour had dithered on Iran and urged Sir Keir Starmer to take action.

“In opposition, Sir Keir’s party repeatedly made a virtue of its promise to proscribe, or ban, the IRGC, designating it a terrorist organisation,” he said.

“David Lammy told how Labour’s government would ban the IRGC, again and again. Now, he tells us climate change is a bigger threat.”

He said proscribing the IRGC would allow the UK to crack down on groups linked to the organisation.

“To fail to stop Iran in its tracks only stores up bigger problems,” he wrote. “It’s a lesson the world has learned to its cost before”.

Mr Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, announced sanctions against IRGC-affiliated people and entities earlier this month.

He told the House of Commons: “We’ve sanctioned over 400 Iranian individuals and entities and through our work with partners, we are exposing and containing Iran’s destabilising weapons development, where soon we’ll be introducing further regulations to bolster existing bans on the export of goods and technology significant to Iran’s production of drones and missiles.”

Mr Jenrick was among Conservatives who called for the organisation to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, but then-foreign secretary Lord Cameron said in April that such a move “would effectively end diplomatic relations” with Iran.

“When it comes to delivering a very direct message to the Iranians… I want to have that conversation myself, I don’t want to ring up my French counterpart and say ‘could you message the Iranians with this message?’,” Lord Cameron said at the time.

“I think that is not in Britain’s interest, that wouldn’t strengthen our approach, in many ways it would weaken it.”