{"id":916086,"date":"2026-04-24T20:11:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/916086\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:11:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:11:41","slug":"keir-starmer-plans-new-powers-to-ban-state-backed-terror-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/916086\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer plans new powers to ban state-backed terror groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

The previous Conservative government did not proscribe the IRGC, despite suggesting it would do so in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maintaining diplomatic relations with Iran has been cited as a reason for not proscribing the IRGC in the past.<\/p>\n

Conservative shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said: “Labour promised action on IRGC proscription but, despite reviews and rising threats, they have failed to deliver.<\/p>\n

“Our allies from Europe to Canada and the Gulf have already acted, and the UK is lagging behind.”<\/p>\n

Labour had promised to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation before the general election in 2024.<\/p>\n

But once in power, the Labour government stepped back from doing so while ministers reviewed options for dealing with state-linked organisations.<\/p>\n

The government already has powers to proscribe organisations under the Terrorism Act 2000.<\/p>\n

Other groups like the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been banned under that law.<\/p>\n

But last year, the government’s independent reviewer of terror legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, said new powers were needed to tackle state-sponsored organisations.<\/p>\n

In a report, external<\/a>, Hall recommended a law change that would give the government powers “equivalent to proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000”.<\/p>\n

“By way of example, this strong power would be available for use against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Hall said.<\/p>\n

Yvette Cooper, when she was home secretary last year, said the government had accepted Hall’s recommendations.<\/p>\n

In May last year, Cooper said, external<\/a> the government would “draw up new powers modelled on counter terrorism powers in a series of areas to tackle these state threats”.<\/p>\n

She added: “And crucially I can tell the House we will create a new power of proscription to cover state threats \u2013 a power that is stronger than current national security act powers in allowing us to restrict the activity and operations of foreign state backed organisations in the UK.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The previous Conservative government did not proscribe the IRGC, despite suggesting it would do so in 2023. Maintaining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-916086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116461508032576087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}