Iran

Lord Polak Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We do consider their claims. As the noble Lord says, there are several countries in the world where life is incredibly dangerous and people feel the need to seek refuge, sometimes in the United Kingdom. We will consider their claims fairly and in line with all our established decision-making. It is important to understand that this country takes seriously its responsibilities and its duty to provide asylum and protection to those in desperate need, but I do not want to say anything that could be interpreted as encouragement to people to fall into the arms of people traffickers or take those often deadly journeys, particularly across the sea.

[Lord Polak (Con)]

The Minister will not be surprised that I listened carefully to what she said about proscription when she talked about state-backed entities—I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Hanson, is also in his place—because that was the same argument used in relation to Hezbollah in Lebanon. They said at the time that Hezbollah was part of the Lebanese Government but, heigh-ho, Hezbollah was proscribed. I am sure the Minister has that in her mind.

I want to follow up on what the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, said. He was absolutely right about the IRGC. Perhaps an example of what he was alluding to are the reports that the IRGC has used two UK-registered cryptocurrency exchanges to move about $1 billion since 2023, evading international sanctions in the process. Can the Minister comment on those reports? What steps are HMG taking to stop the UK being used as a clearing house for Iran’s terrorist thugs?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Lord’s description, of course. The IRGC has been sanctioned, but we are being encouraged to go further with proscription. As I have explained, we asked Jonathan Hall to look at this, and he has recommended that we take certain measures that we may need to legislate for. We are looking closely at it. Obviously we do not announce these sorts of decisions ahead of time, because that potentially diminishes their impact. What I have said today nudges things along in the direction that the noble Lord wishes us to go in, but I am unable to make further commitments today and I think he will understand why.