OPINION: Labour’s broken promise on Iran’s IRGC fuels antisemitism crisis

A political party made a promise in the run-up to a general election which it appears to have entirely failed to fulfil. Obviously, I am shocked.

Forgive the sarcasm, but I feel justified in expressing cynicism because honouring this promise would not have cost the Labour Government a penny – at least not directly from the exchequer. Meanwhile, the profound, real-life consequences for the Jewish community of its failure to honour that promise can be clearly seen in the Board of Deputies’ Commission on Antisemitism.

Jews in the UK, the review declared, are “suffering increasing prejudice” in their “professions, cultural life and public services”. Antisemitism is “pervasive” in the NHS, at universities and in the arts.  The report, co-authored by the government’s antisemitism adviser, Lord Mann, and the former defence secretary, Dame Penny Mordaunt, also highlighted Jewish fears over the policing of hate crimes against Jews at pro-Palestine protests and elsewhere.

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Writing in The Telegraph, they said they had been “stunned into silence” by the evidence and that as they “dug deeper”, what “really scared” them was the “increasing normalisation” of “the extreme, personalised and sometimes life-changing impact” of hate directed at Jewish individuals.

The “promise” I am referring to was made on 25 June, 2024, in an interview published in The Telegraph. The story by their political editor, Ben Riley-Smith, ran just 9 days ahead of the general election under the headline “Labour ‘will change the law’ to officially declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group.”

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Ban the IRGC or face the consequences at home

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Iran’s “Revolutionary Guard” – formally known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – is one of the most powerful paramilitary organisations in the Middle East. It controls the covert, foreign operations of the Iranian government, supports Iran’s proxies (including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen), and hunts down dissidents inside Iran and overseas. It has been linked to kidnap and assassination plots in the UK.

The story beneath that headline stated that “if Labour wins the election” – which, of course, it did – it wanted to change the law to “proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group”.

In its story, The Telegraph also informed readers that the Sunak government – which was then still in office – had “declined the move” due to “Foreign Office” fears of “damaging diplomatic ties with Tehran”. As the FCO is well known throughout Whitehall (and beyond) as the “Camel Corps” due to its affection for Arab lands, it is not unexpected that they would discourage any government of any hue from “damaging” relations with any Middle Eastern nation (apart, of course, from Israel), but it is terrifying to think that they might do so even at the cost of endangering UK citizens.

If you are wondering about the connection between UK antisemitism – as revealed by that BoD report – and Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, which the Labour Government has thus far failed to proscribe, perhaps this story from The Independent may enlighten you. In 2023 it ran a story headlined: “Iranian Guards chiefs ‘tried to radicalise UK students with antisemitic talks claiming the Holocaust was fake.'” The story noted that “senior commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)” had tried to “radicalise British university students with extreme antisemitic propaganda and calls for violence”.

The Indie story went on to say that eight “controversial” armed forces chiefs had allegedly addressed Muslim students, “urging them to ‘support’ attacks and to support ‘people who have carried out acts of violence’.” According to the report, the talks were live-streamed from Iran and hosted by the Islamic Students Association of Britain (ISA). The talks – by speakers who have played key roles in crushing dissent in Iran – were said to have been viewed by “tens of thousands of people”. One commander allegedly described the Holocaust as “fake” and urged listeners to “join the beautiful list of soldiers who would fight and kill Jews.”  Another IRGC commander allegedly claimed that “Jews created homosexuality” and said students should “raise the flag of the Islamic Revolution” and “martyrdom” and should see themselves as “holy warriors”. He allegedly declared that the “era of the Jews would soon end”.

If that is still insufficient evidence for proscribing the IRGC, there is also a report on the BBC website in May 2023 about videos of antisemitic speeches by “Iranian generals” – IRGC generals, that is — had been given to UK students and were “being investigated by the Charity Commission”, the report stated. It noted that the charity regulator was also “looking at footage of ‘death to Israel’ chants” at the “UK premises” of an Islamic charity.” Two of those videos, which were “verified by the BBC”, show talks by members of the IRGC referring to “an apocalyptic war on Jews”. This footage also includes “a denial of the Holocaust”, according to the BBC story. The videos, it says with sublime understatement, add “to growing concerns” that the IRGC is “attempting to radicalise UK Muslims”.

And it’s not just ephemeral media reports. In 2022, security services warned that the IRGC was “inciting violence and plotting to kidnap or kill people on British soil”. And again in 2023, the then head of MI5, Ken McCallum, reported in his update on threats facing the UK that Iran threatened the UK “directly” through its “aggressive intelligence services”. This included intentions to “kidnap or even kill British or UK-based people” perceived as enemies of the regime.

For the avoidance of doubt, the “aggressive intelligence services” are IRGC officers or people under their command who may appear to be merely pro-Palestine activists. In 2020 counter-terror police revealed that there had been 15 plots to kill or kidnap in the UK in the first few months of that year. The IRGC was no less dangerous in 2022 when UK security services had “seen at least 10 such potential threats since January alone”.

Also in January 2023, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change set out the reasons why the then Conservative government “must move to proscribe” the IRGC. The Commons had voted “unanimously” in favour of the government taking “swift” action to proscribe the IRGC, leading – I imagine – to the point at which the Sunak government was, ahem, discouraged from taking action (swift or otherwise) by the FCO amid fears of “damaging” relations with Tehran.

The Blair Institute went on to describe the IRGC as a “violent, Islamist-extremist organisation” that operates no differently from “other proscribed groups” in the UK, such as “Islamic State (ISIS) or al-Qaeda”. This was “apparent from its formal programme of indoctrination designed to radicalise members to adopt its hardline Islamist-extremist ideology” and its “use of terrorism, militancy, hostage-taking and hijacking”.

Formally banning or proscribing the IRGC, said the Blair Institute, would “send a clear message to the clerical regime in Iran that the IRGC’s ‘terrorism and militancy’ on UK soil ‘would not be tolerated’.”

Yet it has been tolerated, and it continues to be tolerated. It is now more than two years since the Commons vote and one whole year since Labour came to office, having promised it would proscribe an organisation overtly inciting hatred against Jews and making life for UK Jews unbearably painful in – among other areas – the NHS, universities and the arts.

I’m fully aware that even if honouring this promise to proscribe the IRGC does not cost the government money, it will be costly in terms of the quid pro quo and deals it will have to make with the hard left and unions which were furious at the proscription of Palestine Action – which is perhaps somewhat ironic, as it is likely their radicalisation was at least in part courtesy of the IRGC.

But regardless of the cost, the government needs to take immediate action. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps must be proscribed now. The evidence of its Jew-hate and its overt incitement of antisemitism is overwhelming.