Home Secretary Can Designate Iran's IRGC as National Security Threat Under New Law
New legislation that enables the Home Secretary to designate certain state-linked organisations, including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as national security threats could be enacted as early as next month. The National Security (State Threats) Bill, introduced to Parliament on Tuesday, is anticipated to become law within weeks.
Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, would gain the authority to label groups involved in “foreign power threat activity”, which encompasses assassination attempts, surveillance, and sabotage. The bill also establishes three new criminal offences: supporting a designated state threat organisation, and two for assisting or accepting material benefit from such a group.
This legislation was a recommendation from Jonathan Hall KC, the government's Independent Reviewer of State Threats Legislation. Hall concluded that classifying state-linked entities like the IRGC as terrorist organisations presented significant legal difficulties. Recent cases have highlighted the use of criminal proxies by hostile foreign powers; for instance, individuals have been convicted of spying for China, an arson attack attributed to Russia's Wagner Group, and the stabbing of an opposition journalist on behalf of Iran. These incidents demonstrate a shift from relying solely on intelligence agencies to employing criminal elements through organisations such as the Wagner Group and the IRGC, thereby rendering the National Security Act 2023, which primarily focused on foreign intelligence services, rapidly outdated.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated, “Where foreign states are found to be engaging in activity that threatens lives or undermines our democratic institutions, we must ensure that such actions have consequences. We will not tolerate hostile actors paying petty criminals to do their dirty work.” Mahmood added, “Foreign states are becoming ever more aggressive – attacking our communities, our way of life, and our institutions – and hiding their tracks behind proxies. We must adapt to keep pace.”
Whitehall regards this bill as a crucial enhancement to the National Security Act, passed just three years ago. Officials report unprecedented levels of threats emanating from individuals and groups operating on behalf of foreign states. Sir Ken McCallum, Director General of MI5, confirmed that the security service had “tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots” in a single year. The Prime Minister and Home Secretary fast-tracked this legislation following recent attacks on Jewish targets, several of which were claimed by the new group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin.
The IRGC, formed after the 1979 revolution to safeguard Iran's new Islamic system, has evolved into a formidable state arm with considerable influence beyond Iran's borders. The bill's impact assessment projects that no more than 10 organisations will be designated as state threats within the first year of its implementation.
