Hamish Falconer MP: speeches

Speeches

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  We have long had concerns over Iran’s malign activity. Iran’s continued support to aligned groups, like Hezbollah and Hamas, undermines regional stability. It supports Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine through the provision of unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missiles, and it poses a threat to UK nationals, Iranian dissidents and Jewish people in the United Kingdom. This Government will hold Iran accountable for its hostile activities. The Home Secretary announced on 19 May that Jonathan Hall’s review delivered recommendations to tackle state threats. We are committed to taking them forward, including through the creation of a new state threats proscription-like tool. In April, we sanctioned the Iranian-backed, Swedish-based Foxtrot criminal network for its role in attacks against targets across Europe. In September, in response to Iran’s transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia, we ended Iran’s air services agreement and stopped Iran Air flying directly into the UK. We have placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme, enhancing transparency regarding foreign influence in the UK. We have so far designated 31 individuals in relation to malign Iranian activity. The UK now has more than 450 sanctions against Iranian-linked individuals and entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its entirety.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend asks vital questions. We do want serious negotiation with the Iranian Government about nuclear weapons and, indeed, many other things. The Foreign Secretary sought to play a full role in providing an opportunity for talks rather than conflict, but those talks cannot be spun out indefinitely. The deadline for snapback, which was referenced by the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), is fast approaching, so we are under considerable time pressure. That does not mean we do not want talks to happen, but they must happen at pace and with real seriousness.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  The Foreign Office—the whole ministerial team and our diplomats—are focused on the concrete steps that would be required. The hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) asked an important question about the IAEA and there was an important question about snapback. There are a range of serious and impactful diplomatic measures that can be used to try to make diplomatic progress to guarantee that Iran will not acquire a nuclear weapon. I recognise that there is a long history of nuclear diplomacy with Iran that has not been a success; that is why I said in one of my previous answers that the timeframe is not unlimited. We will take steps, including snapback, if we do not make progress on diplomacy.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I am not, for reasons obvious, going to provide a running commentary on the assessments of UK intelligence agencies.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  The UK has been able to provide a very limited amount by way of consular support in Iran for some years, for exactly the reasons that my hon. Friend mentioned—it is frustrated by the Iranian Government—and our warnings and travel advice are clear. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for providing me with an opportunity to confirm to the House that we have now reopened our embassy in Tehran after a temporary closure, and a chargé is in place. We will continue to play our full role to ensure the safety of British nationals in Iran and, indeed, to contribute to the diplomatic developments we have discussed.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I do not want anyone in the House to be under any illusions about the seriousness with which we take the IRGC’s activities. That is why we commissioned the Jonathan Hall review. That is why it is on the enhanced tier of FIRS—the foreign influence registration scheme. That is why it is fully sanctioned. That is why we have continued to impose sanctions in response to Iranian aggression. I know well the threat that Iran poses not just to British nationals but to journalists as well, as my hon. Friend eloquently points out. I have met many of those journalists. I am appalled that some of those threats are being made here in the UK. I will not comment too much on law enforcement and intelligence activity, but I have been clear with the Iranian ambassador that the full force of the law and all our capabilities will be focused on those who seek to harm people here.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  Let me be absolutely clear. We will not tolerate any Iran-backed threats on UK soil: not against British Jewry; not against journalists; not against any British national or anyone who is resident here. As both the Foreign Secretary and I have made clear to our Iranian counterparts, we know the threat Iran poses to those in the UK, including to dissidents, journalists and the Jewish community. It must cease that behaviour now. We will not hesitate to take the strongest possible action. The hon. Lady asks an important question about proscription. Given that the IRGC is an arm of the state, we have taken the view that it is important to look at where the mechanisms for taking action against other states can be improved. That is why Jonathan Hall did his review and why, on 19 May, the Home Secretary made the announcement that she did. I reassure the House that the IRGC is fully sanctioned in the UK. Proscription is a slightly different question. It is for those reasons that Jonathan Hall has done his review.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  As I am sure the hon. Gentleman would expect, I will not comment on assessment at this stage, given the security and intelligence implications thereof.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the pattern of Iranian detentions in Iran and some of the threats that we have already described that are sought to be prosecuted here. I will not say more about the state threat here, as I think I have probably laid out more than I would like to, but it is incredibly important that people are aware of the way in which the Iranian state has operated and continues to operate within Iran. We are deeply familiar as a Government —as I know our predecessors were—with the pattern and tactics of Iranian detentions. We continue to provide consular support wherever we can. We are constrained by the Iranian refusal to recognise dual nationality, which often means that those with links to the UK are not in a position, although they should be, to get consular assistance from the UK. We will continue to do everything we can to change that.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I know of the right hon. Gentleman’s long commitment to these issues. So many right hon. and hon. Members have had encounters with the Iranian diaspora and, indeed, more moderate Iranians. The Iranian people are not the enemy of the UK. There is a broad, cultured, moderate population there who would like to live a better life, and who see their families oppressed in the way the right hon. Member for Goole and Pocklington (David Davis) described. We must do everything we can to support them.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  In my last answer, I tried to illustrate why proscription of the IRGC is a complicated question, given gaps in the existing legislation. That is one of the reasons why Jonathan Hall has done his review. We are committed to taking forward his recommendations.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  As ever, the hon. Gentleman asks an important question focused on those who are vulnerable. We have sustained an embassy in Tehran, and I am pleased to announce that it has reopened. One of the roles of the embassy is to maintain engagement that is as wide as possible with wider Iranian society. There are obvious constraints, with which the hon. Gentleman will be familiar, but we do what we can where we can.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I am happy to be clear that that level of enrichment has no obvious civilian purpose. We are told that it was for research and development, but I think many observers have drawn exactly the same conclusion as the right hon. Gentleman.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I confirm for my hon. Friend that we are doing everything we can to try to see a diplomatic solution.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Lady for her questions. I am afraid I will not provide a detailed commentary from the Dispatch Box on the extent of the damage from the strikes, for reasons that I am sure she and the rest of the House understand. I can confirm that we are in discussions about the snapback mechanism. As the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and I have said, we cannot see Iran getting a nuclear weapon. Snapback is an important lever, and we are talking with our E3 partners and the Americans about what role snapback can play. We hope to see a diplomatic solution, which is ultimately the most enduring way to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, but we will continue to consider all diplomatic tools, including snapback. The right hon. Lady asked a range of other important questions. I confirm that we keep regional security questions, particularly in relation to our bases, under close review. Since I last had an opportunity to face her across the Dispatch Box, there have clearly been quite a few changes in relation to events in the region, including in our travel advice. I recognise that this has been a fraught period for those with interests in the region. I am glad to see the ceasefire between Iran and Israel hold. We are encouraged by the reports on the efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire, but I am not in a position to provide much further commentary at this stage from the Dispatch Box, and I will not go any further than we have already gone from the Dispatch Box on the strikes against Iran.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  With the greatest of respect to my predecessor, he will know that the Defence Secretary and the Attorney General do rather different roles. I do not think they are in disagreement, and in any case, collective responsibility would bind them both, and indeed me.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his important question. I am sure I will receive complaints from his party’s Front Benchers, but he will understand that I will not be commenting on the assessment of the strike or on intelligence matters. But I will say that it is absolutely vital that IAEA inspectors are allowed back into Iran; that is the fundamental basis on which trust can be built for a diplomatic solution. Now that a ceasefire is in place, the inspectors must come back in.