The government was pressed on Tuesday to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.

Dan Tomlinson, the new Labour MP for Chipping Barnet, where an estimated one in ten voters are Jewish, said in Parliament: “The IRGC is a destructive, malign and terrorist force that is operating through proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas and Hezbollah”.

Labour MP Dan Tomlinson (standing). Credit: Parliament TV

He urged the government to “update the House on the work that is ongoing to proscribe the IRGC, something that sadly the opposition failed to do when they were in government.”

Middle East Minister and fellow new MP Hamish Falconer told the House of Commons that the government “recognises the threats that IRGC poses” and that it would “take the necessary measures to counter it at home and abroad”.

“The list of proscribed terrorist organisations is under careful review but it would not be appropriate to comment on whether or not an organisation was under consideration at this time,” he added.

“Iran continues to destabilise the Middle East through its support to its proxies and we will work with partners to challenge these destabilising activities,” he said.

Labour’s election manifesto did not call for the IRGC to be proscribed but in February 2023 then-shadow foreign secretary David Lammy told Parliament: “We would proscribe the IRGC, either by using existing terrorism legislation or by creating a new process of proscription for hostile state actors.”

During the general election, it was reported that Labour was planning to bring in “bespoke” proscription mechanism to make it easier for “state-based actors” to be formally declared as terror groups.

Dan Tomlinson’s victory in Chipping Barnet at the general election was the first time the seat was ever won by Labour in history. He succeeded former Conservative Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers.