Enemy spy agencies will face terrorism-style crackdowns to prevent them from plotting assassinations, kidnappings and sabotage from the shadows, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has declared. Organisations such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would be “named and shamed” and proscribed as state-based threats under new proposed powers.
Police will also be allowed to seize foreign agents’ passports and use enhanced stop-and-search powers around known target locations. It follows a review by Jonathan Hall, the independent review of terrorism legislation, who warned that the law is not suitable to counter the threats posed by Russia, Iran and China.
Ms Cooper told MPs: “We will create a new power of proscription to cover state threats – 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, including new criminal offences for individuals who invite support for or promote the group in question and we will not hesitate to use it against organisations that pose a threat to UK residents because we will not stand for foreign state organisations seeking to escalate threats on UK soil.
“The Iranian regime poses an unacceptable threat to our domestic security, which cannot continue.
“Malign activities against us by or on behalf of foreign states have grown and the threats we face are more complex and intertwined.
“The old boundaries between state threats, terrorists and organised criminals are being eroded.
“And we have seen malign foreign state organisations seek to exploit any vulnerability from criminal networks to our cyber security to our borders to do us harm.”
Pressure has intensified on the Government to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation after a suspected atrocity was foiled.
Mr Hall suggested creating a proscription tool equivalent to declaring a group a terrorist organisation.
And those who invite support for an enemy intelligence service should face criminal charges, Mr Hall said.
Spies and agents preparing operations abroad should also be prosecuted in the UK, using “preparatory” offences.
Outlining his proposal for a new proscription tool, Mr Hall said: “Whilst few foreign intelligence services will ever act openly, the fact that such organisations actively aspire to damage national security should be prominently exposed for public consumption.
“Exposure in itself could lead to a harder operating environment in which state entities can have less confidence in finding either willing or unwitting assistance, whether in carrying out plans, securing finance or providing accommodation.
“For comparison, the proscription of terrorist organisations appears to cut through to public understanding in a way that sanctioning does not.”
He added: “It will allow the Government to communicate decisive stigma at an international level for certain state and state-backed entities.
“Naming and shaming in a high-profile manner, accompanied by open reasons, can help address attempts at plausible deniability for serious harm caused to the UK or its allies.”
The top lawyer warned that ministers need “to do even more to warn the public about the risk posed by the most dangerous foreign intelligence services”.
Despite vowing to introduce new powers, the Home Secretary faced repeated questions about why she will not proscribe the IRGC in the coming weeks while new legislation is drawn up.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp asked Ms Cooper: “In opposition, the Home Secretary said she would proscribe the IRGC.
“The IRGC sponsors terrorism and funds subversion. She has now been Home Secretary for nearly a year.
“Why has she not done what she said she would do?
“The Home Secretary has said that the Iranian ambassador has been summoned.
“This is not an adequate response. Why have Iranian diplomats, including any suspected of supporting espionage activity, not been expelled?
“In their first six months in office, the Government has not returned a single Iranian to Iran, including Iranian criminals.
“Does the Home Secretary agree it is now time to repeal the Human Rights Act for immigration matters so that criminals and other dangerous people can be more easily removed from the UK and cannot persuade UK judges to allow them to stay here on ever more tenuous human rights-based grounds?”
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice told the Commons: “The Home Secretary, when in opposition, talked about proscribing the IRGC, but now we’ve got Jonathan Hall sort of recommending a delay in proscribing the IRGC.
“Surely the right thing to do, Home Secretary, is proscribe them now, and if any more powers are required, introduce that through emergency legislation, but don’t kick the can down the road.”
Ms Cooper went on to say that the Government is “prepared to take the action needed to make sure that the Government, the police, security agencies have the powers they need to take action and to make sure something happens in practice”.
Three men have recently been charged with spying on behalf of Iran.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, who all arrived in the UK illegally, were remanded in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, charged with offences under the National Security Act.
They are all charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist the Iranian foreign intelligence service between August 14 and February 16.
Tehran’s ambassador in the UK, Seyed Ali Mousavi, was summoned to the Foreign Office to be grilled over Iran’s activity in the UK.
Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reported that Tehran said the detention was a violation of international law and politically motivated.
The three men all arrived in the UK by irregular means, including by small boats and a lorry, between 2016 and 2022, Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told.
Sepahvand is also charged with engaging in surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research, intending to commit acts, namely serious violence against a person in the UK.
Manesh and Noori are further charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance, with the intention that acts, namely serious violence against a person in the UK, would be committed by others.
The trio will next appear for a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey on June 6.