The UK’s Labour Party intends to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity, if it wins the general election next month, according to a report by the British newspaper The Telegraph.
The report comes in the wake of the IRGC designation in Canada, which was welcomed by the Iranian-Canadian community who have been pushing for this measure for a few years.
The current UK government, led by the Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak, has considered a similar move but decided against it on a number of occasions.
Based on the Telegraph report, the leading figures in the Labor Party do not share the hesitation and would be willing to back a change in the law that would allow for the IRGC’s proscription.
Yvette Cooper and David Lammy, picked to be the next Home and Foreign secretaries if Labor wins, are said to support the measure.
The Labor Party’s 2024 manifesto includes an explicit reference to Iran’s IRGC, while criticizing the UK’s approach.
“From the Skripal poisonings to assassination plots by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, threats from hostile states or state-sponsored groups are on the rise, but Britain lacks a comprehensive framework to protect us,” the manifesto reads. “Labor will take the approach used for dealing with non-state terrorism and adapt it to deal with state-based domestic security threats.”
It is unclear when and how the Labor would attempt such change –if it gets to form the next UK government after the July 4 election. The proscription will be a lengthy process, since it is a legal process and would require a legal case by the government.
Supporters of the move in the Labor Party may point to the October 7 attack by Iran-backed Hamas and the concerted efforts of non-state armed forces across the Middle East, almost all of which are backed by Iran’s IRGC.
