Less than a week ago, between his staged TikTok videos in Manhattan, Labour Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband met, shook hands and posed for a friendly picture with Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.
Body language, as we saw in the meeting between Donald Trump and Andy Burnham, is often revealing in such situations.
In their posed picture, Araghchi is smirking. Perhaps it’s a knowing look. After all, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told the world in July that bases such as RAF Fairford, which we share with our American allies, were a “legitimate target”.
I’ve warned about this for years, of course - only ever to be dismissed by a political establishment that always claims to know better, yet always walks us into new threats.
In November 2024, I demanded that Britain proscribe the IRGC as a terror group. Specifically, at Prime Minister’s Questions, I asked: “Has the time not come to proscribe what is so obviously a terrorist organisation?” Sir Keir Starmer’s response was as you might expect: impotent. All he pledged was to “keep it under review”.
I reiterated these points in May 2025, specifically as it related to an Iranian national who entered Britain illegally by boat. Instead of listening to me, Labour MPs jeered and shouted: “Shame on you.”
A month later, I asked publicly: “Will the British government and establishment finally wake up and recognise that major threat? After years of appeasement, it’s time that they acknowledge this.” Since that day, another 50,000 people have arrived in the very same way, doubtless with more hostile actors amongst them.
I raised it again in July 2025, and then again in January and again in March of this year, when I tweeted: “Last week the EU designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation. Britain must do the same. Keir Starmer should show some leadership for once and proscribe the IRGC, as I have urged for many years.”
Most recently, in June, I told the Telegraph that I “asked the government and the Prime Minister to take action, and nothing was done. We are now literally letting in terrorists with the intent to kill us. This is monstrous. It is a direct threat to national security. Nobody wants to listen. I’m so angry about this.”
The Labour government has been absent on this issue. But arguably they have been complicit too. People may bridle at the suggestion, but there’s no other way to put it when Starmer’s own business secretary, Peter Kyle, outright admitted in January that the Labour Party thinks “proscribing [the IRGC] like we do domestic organisations isn’t appropriate because it is a state organisation”.
Of course, it’s a state organisation. Iran is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. The idea that you can’t proscribe a group simply because it is state-sponsored or controlled, or even because it is an arm of a state, is one of the most risible and offensive things to ever come out of this Labour government.
It is true that support for the IRGC has been made illegal, but this is under new legislation giving powers to crack down on foreign state-backed activity. It is not the same as traditional proscription and the effects are more limited than an outright ban. This is not good enough.
And the sad truth of the matter is the Conservative Party has shown itself to be equally, if not more, inept on the subject of Iran and its proxies.
At the weekend we learned that under Theresa May’s government, a top Hamas operative was granted asylum in Britain, and went on to plan atrocities from right here on British soil. Her special adviser on counter terrorism and asylum at the time was Nick Timothy, who was recently promoted by Kemi Badenoch with a shadow justice brief. You simply cannot make it up.
For decades I’ve warned about the dangers of mass migration, especially as it pertains to national security. For decades the political class has mocked, ignored, and derided the suggestions.
The events at RAF Fairford must immediately focus our minds. I am calling on the government, once again, to proscribe the IRGC itself and stop appeasing the mullahs, whether for reasons political, whether out of pure cowardice, or perhaps simply because they lack the moral fortitude.
This is a national emergency. And if Labour doesn’t want to deal with it, they should go to the country and let the public elect people who will.
(This is a slightly edited version of an article published in the Telegraph on 28th September.)
Body language, as we saw in the meeting between Donald Trump and Andy Burnham, is often revealing in such situations.
In their posed picture, Araghchi is smirking. Perhaps it’s a knowing look. After all, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told the world in July that bases such as RAF Fairford, which we share with our American allies, were a “legitimate target”.
I’ve warned about this for years, of course - only ever to be dismissed by a political establishment that always claims to know better, yet always walks us into new threats.
In November 2024, I demanded that Britain proscribe the IRGC as a terror group. Specifically, at Prime Minister’s Questions, I asked: “Has the time not come to proscribe what is so obviously a terrorist organisation?” Sir Keir Starmer’s response was as you might expect: impotent. All he pledged was to “keep it under review”.
I reiterated these points in May 2025, specifically as it related to an Iranian national who entered Britain illegally by boat. Instead of listening to me, Labour MPs jeered and shouted: “Shame on you.”
A month later, I asked publicly: “Will the British government and establishment finally wake up and recognise that major threat? After years of appeasement, it’s time that they acknowledge this.” Since that day, another 50,000 people have arrived in the very same way, doubtless with more hostile actors amongst them.
I raised it again in July 2025, and then again in January and again in March of this year, when I tweeted: “Last week the EU designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation. Britain must do the same. Keir Starmer should show some leadership for once and proscribe the IRGC, as I have urged for many years.”
Most recently, in June, I told the Telegraph that I “asked the government and the Prime Minister to take action, and nothing was done. We are now literally letting in terrorists with the intent to kill us. This is monstrous. It is a direct threat to national security. Nobody wants to listen. I’m so angry about this.”
The Labour government has been absent on this issue. But arguably they have been complicit too. People may bridle at the suggestion, but there’s no other way to put it when Starmer’s own business secretary, Peter Kyle, outright admitted in January that the Labour Party thinks “proscribing [the IRGC] like we do domestic organisations isn’t appropriate because it is a state organisation”.
Of course, it’s a state organisation. Iran is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. The idea that you can’t proscribe a group simply because it is state-sponsored or controlled, or even because it is an arm of a state, is one of the most risible and offensive things to ever come out of this Labour government.
It is true that support for the IRGC has been made illegal, but this is under new legislation giving powers to crack down on foreign state-backed activity. It is not the same as traditional proscription and the effects are more limited than an outright ban. This is not good enough.
And the sad truth of the matter is the Conservative Party has shown itself to be equally, if not more, inept on the subject of Iran and its proxies.
At the weekend we learned that under Theresa May’s government, a top Hamas operative was granted asylum in Britain, and went on to plan atrocities from right here on British soil. Her special adviser on counter terrorism and asylum at the time was Nick Timothy, who was recently promoted by Kemi Badenoch with a shadow justice brief. You simply cannot make it up.
For decades I’ve warned about the dangers of mass migration, especially as it pertains to national security. For decades the political class has mocked, ignored, and derided the suggestions.
The events at RAF Fairford must immediately focus our minds. I am calling on the government, once again, to proscribe the IRGC itself and stop appeasing the mullahs, whether for reasons political, whether out of pure cowardice, or perhaps simply because they lack the moral fortitude.
This is a national emergency. And if Labour doesn’t want to deal with it, they should go to the country and let the public elect people who will.
(This is a slightly edited version of an article published in the Telegraph on 28th September.)
