UK moves to ban support for Iran’s IRGC after threats in Britain

Britain laid draft regulations to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a move that would make support for the force a criminal offence after years of threats and intimidation on UK soil. The draft order also covers the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Volunteer Corps, and if Parliament approves it, these will be the first designations made under the new state-threats regime.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is using powers created by the National Security Act 2023, as amended by the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026. The new framework is meant to give law enforcement and intelligence agencies a sharper tool to disrupt hostile activity directed at Britain and its interests, moving beyond sanctions into criminal enforcement against people who support, assist or obtain material benefit from a designated body.

Under the draft regime, supporting the IRGC would no longer be treated only as a foreign-policy problem or a sanctions breach. It would become a criminal matter, with new offences covering support, assistance and material benefit, while related espionage, sabotage and foreign interference offences could carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. In June, ministers told peers the new offence framework could also lead to 14-year prison sentences in some cases.

The IRGC is a central part of Iran’s security apparatus and answers directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader. Officials have already identified IRGC-linked activity involving threats to life and intimidation on British soil. MI5 Director-General Ken McCallum said in October 2025 that security agencies had tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots over the previous year. The main threat identified by the Intelligence and Security Committee in July 2025 was the physical threat posed to dissidents and other opponents.

The London Assembly called for the IRGC to be proscribed in March, and linked it to at least 20 credible threats in the UK, including an alleged imminent attack on the Israeli Embassy in Kensington that counter-terrorism police foiled in May 2025.

In May, Britain imposed more than 550 sanctions on Iranian individuals and organisations, including the IRGC in its entirety, and more than 220 Iran-related designations since taking office.