Prime Minister Starmer, ‘You must be joking!’
There are moments when events in London reveal more about the nature of a foreign threat than any speech delivered abroad. Such a moment came when the Islamic Centre of England – a UK-registered charity – held a vigil for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referring to him as “our leader” and “a great martyr.” These were not careless words. They were chosen deliberately. They were spoken publicly, under the protection of British law, within an institution granted the privileges and legitimacy of charitable status.
This incident did not occur in isolation. Earlier this week, the We Believe Alliance delivered an official parliamentary briefing at Westminster calling for the formal proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Muslim Brotherhood under the Terrorism Act 2000. The briefing set out in clear terms that the IRGC represents the primary external instrument of the Iranian regime and poses a direct and ongoing threat to British national security. The vigil at the Islamic Centre of England illustrates precisely why such action is necessary.
The IRGC operates under the authority of the Supreme Leader. It is not a conventional military force. It is an ideological and operational apparatus designed to project influence beyond Iran’s borders. Through its Quds Force and affiliated networks, it directs proxy organisations, sustains covert intelligence structures, and conducts influence and intimidation operations designed to silence critics and extend the regime’s reach.
Its activities have reached Britain.
British security services have confirmed multiple Iranian-linked plots targeting individuals on UK soil, including journalists, dissidents, and others who sought refuge under British protection. These operations involved surveillance, threat activity, and credible assassination planning. Such actions were not theoretical exercises. They were active operations conducted within British jurisdiction.
The IRGC’s methods extend beyond physical threat. It operates through influence networks, financial channels, ideological platforms, and institutional proxies. It uses intimidation to silence opposition. It leverages cultural and religious infrastructure to extend its reach. It cultivates networks capable of monitoring, pressuring, and isolating those who oppose the regime.
This is the apparatus commanded by the man honoured at the Islamic Centre of England.
To refer to Khamenei as “our leader” in London is not merely an expression of personal belief. It is a declaration of allegiance to a foreign political authority whose security structures have demonstrated both intent and capability to operate against British interests and individuals under British protection.
The We Believe Alliance briefing warned Parliament that the absence of proscription creates a structural vulnerability. Without formal designation, the IRGC is able to sustain influence networks indirectly, benefiting from legal ambiguity that restricts the ability of authorities to dismantle organisational infrastructure before it matures into operational threat. Proscription would provide law enforcement and intelligence services with the necessary legal authority to disrupt recruitment, prevent support activity, and dismantle networks aligned with the organisation.
The events at the Islamic Centre of England bring that vulnerability into sharp focus.
Britain has long extended protection to those fleeing persecution. Thousands of Iranians rebuilt their lives here after escaping repression under the very regime Khamenei led. For them, the IRGC is not an abstract institution. It is the instrument through which intimidation, imprisonment, and violence were enforced. To see its supreme authority honoured within a British charity demonstrates how far the regime’s ideological reach extends – and how urgently that reach must be addressed.
Charitable status carries responsibilities. It confers legitimacy and public trust. It exists to serve the public good within the United Kingdom. It cannot serve as a platform for allegiance to a foreign political authority whose apparatus has targeted British residents and undermined British sovereignty.
The We Believe Alliance’s parliamentary briefing recognised this reality. It called for proscription not as a symbolic gesture, but as a necessary step to protect the United Kingdom’s national security and institutional integrity.
The vigil at the Islamic Centre of England has now underscored that warning. It has made visible what was already understood within Britain’s security establishment: that the ideological and operational structures of the Iranian regime do not stop at Iran’s borders.
The question now is whether Britain will act with the clarity required to defend its own sovereignty – or continue to allow legal ambiguity to provide cover for institutions aligned with hostile power structures.
National security depends not only on intelligence and enforcement, but on legal clarity. Parliament now has before it both the evidence and the means to act.
