Right now, the bravest people on earth are the Iranian protesters marching to bring down the Islamic Republic. Millions are filling the streets with their daily incantations against corruption and tyranny, risking their lives against one of the most barbaric and oppressive governments on earth. According to some estimates, two thousand Iranians have been slaughtered by Iran’s security forces on the orders of the 86 year old clerical despot, Ali Khamenei. That number is likely an underestimate given the recent internet blackout, meaning we are in the midst of the one of the most depraved crimes of our age.
And where is Britain in all this, specifically our Prime Minister? He is quite literally absent on leave, along with other western leaders. Sure, Starmer, alongside Macron and Merz, issued a statement two days ago in which he said that he was 2deeply concerned about reports of violence by Iranian security forces’ and went on to ‘strongly condemn the killing of protesters”. He urged the authorities to “exercise restraint” and “refrain from violence”. But such anodyne words will not impact events on the ground, nor will they deter the mass-murdering psychopaths of the IRGC.
The Islamic Republic remains an enemy state that sees itself in perpetual war with the West and whose organs of terror directly affect British interests. In July 2025, Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee concluded that Iran posed a “wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat” to this country.
Three months later, Director General of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, reported that security agencies had tracked “more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots”. At the heart of this threat is the IRGC, Khamenei’s special army that supervises terrorism abroad and repression at home. The same force that has crushed thousands of innocents in Iran has also killed hundreds of people abroad and poses a direct threat to the UK.
That is why campaigners have long been urging the government to proscribe the organisation. They recognise that proscription would prevent its members from operating in any capacity within the UK, thus restricting its terror-related activities. Proscription would specifically disrupt the IRGC’s efforts to nurture homegrown Islamist extremism on our soil and make it harder to recruit terror operatives.
Yet the government refuses to act. Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary, recently confirmed that the Government had already used the “full extent” of sanctions against Tehran and would not go down the proscription route. This is a cop out rather than a serious government strategy, as well as a slap in the face for Iran’s freedom fighters.
But it is not just the government’s silence that is inexplicable and troubling. The BBC too has been criticised for its lax coverage of the Iranian counter revolution. An organisation that works itself into a frenzy every time an Israeli soldier so much as coughs or sneezes was silent for days while Iranian cities were convulsed with protest.
The BBC’s explanation, courtesy of Jon Simpson, was that it was “very difficult to get correspondents in”. That Jon Simpson could have said this with a straight face is actually surreal. Despite not having direct access to Gaza for two years, the BBC has provided non-stop coverage of the war, eclipsing so much else that has been going on around the world.
To make matters worse, when the Iran protests did make the top of the news agenda for last Friday’s 10 o’clock news, viewers could hear comments from Diplomatic Correspondent Caroline Hawley which were clearly not designed for the final cut.
Yet the broadcaster did manage to feature a segment of a speech by Khamenei in which he referred to the protesters as “vandals” who were out to “please Trump”. It is yet more evidence of the BBC’s appalling bias and ideological capture, something remarked upon in the Prescott report. It is little wonder that so many Iranians demonstrated angrily outside the broadcaster’s headquarters last week with cries of “Shame on you”.
Right now, the government’s top priority should be to proscribe the IRGC, putting the UK in line with the USA, Canada and Australia. They should sanction all other entities in Iran that support terror and name and shame all those in the country that are involved in the savage suppression of their people. Their assets must be frozen so that they know there is a price to pay for their murderous activity. The UK must also declare that there will be no place here for either Khamenei or any of his followers if they choose exile from Iran.
As for the BBC, it needs to get its act together. Clearly, its left-liberal newsroom elite blanch at the narrative of a largely Muslim population seeking to upend an undemocratic and misogynistic Islamic tyranny. But that can no longer be an excuse for such limp coverage. What is happening in Iran right now is truly seismic and has the power to change the Middle East for decades to come. The Iranian people are marching for freedom and we should stand with them.