Iran

Lord Archbishop of York Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

It is. I thank the noble Lord for his comments about our support for the protesters. It is essential, when we have these discussions, that we are completely grounded in the experience of those brave young people taking to the streets in Tehran and elsewhere across the country. The courage with which they are making their case is astounding. On the issue of the World Service, again, the noble Lord is right that this is an incredibly important service, and we often overlook and understate its impact, so I am pleased that it can continue. On proscription, yes, we are proceeding in the way that I outlined in response to the earlier question. We have sanctioned members of the IRGC but, as the noble Lord says, if there are additional powers through the means of proscription, we need to make changes in order to do that, but we are acting fully along with the recommendations of the Hall piece of work.

[The Archbishop of York]

My Lords, I have a very simple humanitarian question relating to what the Minister has just said. We do not know how many people have died, how many are injured or how many are missing, but we do know that the internet in Iran has been brought down. Simply, the restoration of the internet would allow family members to be in touch, to seek those who are missing and to know more of what is happening. What representations are the Government making on that issue, which would bring some solace to so many deeply hurting families in this appalling situation?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

On the opening point about our lack of ability to understand just how many people have been killed so far, estimates range from 3,000 to many times that, and I think that, as information emerges, we will be horrified at what is revealed. He is also right to remind us of how vital communications infrastructure is, most principally, of course, through access to the internet. We want as much as anybody to see that restored. There is a reason that these things are removed by regimes at moments such as this, and it is not difficult to work out what that is—it is about hiding what is happening and preventing people from organising, communicating and supporting one another.