Iran’s fanatical leaders threaten our way of life and that of the whole world
LAST Oct 7, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and brutally murdered more than 1,200 men, women and children. They kidnapped another 250, to prolong their suffering.
For many, this was a catastrophe far, far away. Understandably, the massacre, and ensuing war between Israel and Hamas, is not a daily priority for most here in Britain.
But what if I was to tell you the threat is much closer to home? What if I told you that Hamas, a brutal terrorist organisation, has some of its agents walking our streets? And that its masters in Iran work to sow division in our communities, operating from buildings in the UK where they are plotting attacks on British residents.
Iran, with its malevolent ayatollahs in Tehran screaming that the UK is Little Satan to America’s Great Satan, seeks to undermine our way of life.
The world’s chief sponsor of terror, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), uses its £5 billion budget to spread chaos, not just across the Middle East, but here in the UK too.
They control armies of terrorists who even threaten the shipping lanes we all rely on for goods and food.
Last week we learnt that Iran had sent 200 ballistic missiles to Russia, for Vladimir Putin to rain down on our allies, the people of Ukraine.
In return, our intelligence agencies suspect Russia is sharing nuclear secrets with Iran, a regime set on building a bomb to wipe Israel off the map. Making up this axis of autocracy is China, bankrolling Russia and Iran by buying their oil.
All the while, China grows in power, threatening not just Taiwan, but our values of freedom and equality.
President Xi Jinping continues to pick off weaker nations with loans that can never be repaid, seizing ports and territory with economic blackmail.
Sir Keir Starmer has been Prime Minister only for a couple of months.
In that time it’s difficult to even begin solving some of these bigger problems. But already he is making serious mistakes that are setting our country on a dangerous path.
In the face of Chinese hostility, his Government cowers – refusing to call it a threat to our national security despite MI5 warning that Chinese espionage takes place on an ‘epic scale’.
Labour carelessly talks once again of the UK handing over the Chagos territory, strategic islands in the Indian Ocean that both we and our allies rely upon for projecting power.
The plan is to give the islands to Mauritius, a tiny nation over which China exerts great influence. In government we blocked this. We must hope Labour does not buckle.
Vital protections for free speech at our universities have been reversed, reportedly to placate Beijing.
Despite all this, Sir Keir has delayed a critical increase in defence spending. And on Iran, Labour dithers.
In opposition, Sir Keir’s party repeatedly made a virtue of its promise to proscribe, or ban, the IRGC, designating it a terrorist organisation.
David Lammy told how Labour’s government would ban the IRGC, again and again. Now, he tells us climate change is a bigger threat. Instead of forking out £11 billion for overseas climate aid, he should be increasing defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP.
As a minister in government, I consistently argued behind the scenes for proscription of the IRGC.
Alongside colleagues, including staunch campaigner on this issue Sir Iain Duncan Smith, I brought a backbench motion to ban the IRGC.
Sadly we did not win the argument within Government. But now Labour must hold true to its promise – for the safety of our people and the world.
We know that the IRGC has supported groups sowing division with attacks on Jewish people and Israel, which I visited after the Oct 7 attacks. They support mosques, charities and schools to radicalise people in our communities against our British way of life. And they use criminal gangs and thugs to intimidate people on our streets, forcing journalists out of our country last year.
MI5 and police revealed they had foiled Iranian 15 assassination plots over a year against UK residents the regime wants rid of. Proscribing the IRGC would allow UK authorities to crack down much more tightly against groups linked to the Iranian regime’s terror sponsors.
It will send a clear signal that the IRGC’S actions in the UK, and around the globe, are a threat to our way of life, and that we draw a clear line.
We cannot be pushovers. To fail to stop Iran in its tracks only stores up bigger problems. It’s a lesson the world has learnt to its cost before. And one that we must not forget.