Iranian spies are bringing hitmen and surveillance teams to the UK on work and study visas, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been warned. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has successfully smuggled operatives into the UK on small boats. But their best agents are living legally in the UK on residency permits, and in some cases have become "recognised and respected business people", according to Roger Macmillan, the former head of security for Iran International, a Persian language media channel opposed to the regime.
Some of them even have the "ability to bring in skilled workers from overseas", prompting fears Britain's foes are able to exploit immigration laws to target British Jews, Iranian dissidents and enemies of the regime at a time when the threat from Tehran is intensifying.
Threat embedded for 25 years
Mr Macmillan told the Express: "I don’t believe the general population in the UK understand just how insidious, how deep this threat goes and how long they’ve actually been here in the UK, embedded in many cases as part of British society.
"The first people would have come over at least 25 years ago and we have people who are fully embedded in British society.
"They own businesses – they’re incredible business people. Some of them have the ability to bring in skilled workers from overseas.
"Some of them will even be British citizens. They have come, they have claimed [residency] here and they have applied for British citizenship."
Asked if the skilled worker visa route was being exploited by IRGC operatives, Mr Macmillan said: "There is a possibility that that is happening – absolutely. But you can now see it is more cost effective to use the unwitting third country nationals who are paid to deliver a service.
"This is violence as a service. It’s a marketplace for people who are willing, for anything from a few pounds to a few thousand pounds, to commit these acts of terror in the UK."
Small boats 'opportunism, not tradecraft'
Asked if the IRGC was exploiting the small boats crisis, Mr Macmillan said: "Realistically, I don’t think they need to.
"Those crossing on small boats are, in the main, not trained assets. They are low-level, disposable, and recruited cheaply, often for nothing more than a discounted fare. That is opportunism, not tradecraft.
"They can get their operators here by legal means. They would rather not waste their time pushing someone through a small boat.
"I think we need to look at the sort of immigration statuses and the visa statuses of some of these people who come in.
"Many of these people have become recognised and respected business people in their own right. But now we have the opportunity to look at where the money comes from and to see if some of that funding is from the IRGC, in which case the police will be able to arrest them and charge them under the new state threats legislation."
Mr Macmillan said "skilled worker visas, student routes and charity sector workers offer far more access, with far less scrutiny".
He added: "That is where the real counter-intelligence effort should be concentrated. Arguably, that capability is already here and operating quietly in the background."
Teenager convicted of assassination plot
The issue has been drawn into sharp focus after Norwegian teenager Johannes Natland was convicted of plotting to carry out an assassination on behalf of Iran.
Natland was arrested in a hotel in Huddersfield. Officers found two firearms and ammunition when they raided his room. Messages found on his phone showed he had been given exact instructions, including maps, pictures and videos, of where the 'hide' containing the bag of guns was located.
Investigators have not revealed who Natland was planning to kill.
IRGC proscribed
Ms Mahmood finally proscribed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps following years of assassination plots and kidnap conspiracies on UK soil. The Home Secretary blamed Tehran for a series of arson attacks on British Jews.
The move will give counter-terrorism police and MI5 powers to arrest their foot-soldiers operating in the UK, freeze assets, allow the Home Secretary to cancel visas of foreign nationals linked to the IRGC and force social media companies to take down their propaganda.
The Home Office also proscribed the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR) and Russia's GRU Volunteer Corps.
The Home Office said the IMCR have claimed responsibility for seven attacks on Jewish and Israeli communities, and Persian-language media outlets. This included the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on March 23.
Security officials believe members of the IRGC's Qods Force "almost certainly directed" IMCR attacks across Europe.
Surveillance and community
Explaining the threat British Jews face, Mr Macmillan told the Sunday Express: "We saw a number of Iranian nationals or individuals sponsored by Iran, who have been conducting surveillance against the Jewish community.
"That can be anything from monitoring them online, photographing a house, places of work, following a pattern of life and then passing that information back.
"In many cases, these people may not know the purpose of the surveillance and it’s amateur. These are not professionally trained.
"You’re standing outside someone’s house and snapping someone as they come in. This is not professional.
"These are low level, tier three, tier four operators who are being controlled somewhere in the background, someone with a degree of statecraft."
And Mr Macmillan said immigration officials should work with Iranians living in the UK to root out IRGC spies. He said: "We need to make sure that when people come here, the immigration services work with the Persian community to understand exactly who these people are and what their intent is in this country.
"The Iranian community is an incredibly well educated, very well emmeshed in British society. We need to support that whilst whittling out the people who are coming here with malign intent against the UK as a whole and against the Jewish community who so much of this is against."
Lord Walney, the former government independent adviser on political violence and disruption, said: "Iranian operatives are becoming deeply embedded in our society.
"They build networks and spread regime narratives inside British civil society. This soft power push is not separate from the violent threat. It systematically excuses and normalises it. And it helps create the environment in which hostile activity targeting the Jewish community can flourish."
