Labour urges UK government to get tough on Iran

Yvette Cooper calls for new approach to threat posed by Tehran

Senior political figures say Iran poses a threat to Britain. EPA

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said the UK has failed to effectively counter threats from Iran and called for a tougher approach.

Speaking to The National, she said “tensions” between ministers in Rishi Sunak's cabinet had prevented the government from adopting a united line on crucial issues, such as whether the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps should be proscribed and designated a terrorist group.

The opposition party would establish a “joint cell” run by the Foreign Office and Home Office to address threats posed to national security, including from Iran, if it gets into government, she said.

Ms Cooper threw further weight behind cross-party calls for Britain to adopt a more stringent approach to Tehran. Senior political figures, including two former defence ministers, a former leader of the Liberal Democrat party and the head of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, warned a shake-up was long overdue.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London on Monday, Ms Cooper laid out her vision for a Labour-run Home Office and Foreign Office to work in tandem on counter-terrorism strategies.

“Some of the things that we have in mind [are], for example, the failure from the government to respond sufficiently to some of the threats from the IRGC in the UK, where there have obviously been tensions between different departments,” she said in response to a question from The National.

“We believe you actually need the Foreign Office and the Home Office working closely together to deal with some of those homeland security threats.

“In terms of how those international threats impinge on our homeland security, on our domestic security, that’s where we believe we now need that co-ordinated approach between the Home Office and the Foreign Office."

MPs from across the political spectrum are calling on the government to wake up to the acute threats posed by Iran and have laid bare their concerns in a letter to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

“Iran is the Middle East’s largest, most aggressive power, with an obvious commitment to revising the global order, with a growing alliance with Russia and a desire to deepen it," the letter read.

The document was signed by Menzies Campbell, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Michael Fallon, former secretary of state for defence, Alicia Kearns, chairwoman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, Gen David Richards, former chief of defence staff, George Robertson, former Nato secretary general and former secretary of state for defence, and Mark Sedwill, former national security adviser and former cabinet secretary.

The letter supports the analysis and recommendations of a new report from the Policy Exchange think tank, which claims "Iran is fundamentally committed to creating a new Middle Eastern status quo where it is the region’s dominant power".

The report said treating Iran's nuclear ambitions as a single and separate issue to broader security concerns had to change.

"The most obvious failure of western policy, and particularly British and European policy, has been to compartmentalise the nuclear issue diplomatically and then treat this as the central policy issue in relations with Iran," the report said.

"Nuclear developments, while an important part of the package, must be situated within a more comprehensive understanding of the wider threat posed by Iran.

"Iran policy, meanwhile, must begin with the strategic threat that Iran poses, not the single, symptomatic element that is its nuclear programme."

The 70-page report argues that the UK government should be doing more to counter both open and covert Iranian operations within Britain, to "prevent assassinations and kidnappings in the UK, including by tasking the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and National Crime Agency’s intelligence capabilities, along with MI5 and MI6 to hire more Persian analysts and better fuse MI5, MI6, and NCA capabilities".

'Isolate Iran'

Policy Exchange's report also called for tougher sanctions and a crackdown on illicit Iranian finances. as well as disrupting Iran's relations with Russia.

It recommended a snapback process of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and part of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

A diplomatic move, this would "isolate Iran, ensure international support for an anti-Iranian coalition, and force the issue over Iran among the JCPOA’s signatories".

Meanwhile, a deepening of the UK's security and intelligence relationships with the "key powers that surround Iran", including the UAE was also recommended.

In their letter to the Foreign Secretary, the senior political figures point out that Britain's security and counter-terrorism forces have uncovered 15 Iranian plots on UK soil in the past 18 months, but also that "Iran is also becoming more brazen in its prosecution of international disruption".

"Iran’s increasingly appalling human rights record, accelerating nuclear programme, sponsorship of proxies throughout the Middle East, extensive assistance to Russia in its brutal war on Ukraine, and sponsorship of terrorism and kidnapping makes it an obvious threat to international stability," the letter said.

Mr Cleverly this month paved the way for tougher measures against Iran by saying Britain would widen the criteria that can be used to impose sanctions.

He said the bill was a response to "credible threats" by Iran to kill or kidnap perceived enemies in the UK. Britain says at least 15 such plots have been detected since the start of last year.

The new powers to impose sanctions over involvement in the "use and spread of weapons or weapons technology" could also be used to prolong missile-related measures that are due to expire in October.