Britain will no longer “tolerate hostile actors paying petty criminals to do their dirty work,” Sir Keir Starmer has vowed, while announcing a new law allowing the government to treat foreign proxies like terrorist groups.
“Where foreign states are found to be engaging in activity that threatens lives or undermines our democratic institutions, we must ensure that such actions have consequences,” he added.
The Prime Minister was referring to the new National Security (State Threats) Bill, which was laid in Parliament on Tuesday in response to a wave of arson attacks and other crimes that investigations have linked to groups acting on behalf of hostile states.
Sir Keir pointed to the series of fires targeting synagogues and Jewish institutions in London during March and April, which were claimed by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia.
An ongoing prosecution in the United States alleges that the attacks were commissioned by members of Kataib Hezbollah, which is an Iran-backed militant group operating in Iraq.
British law already allows people to be prosecuted for acting on behalf of foreign intelligence services, and for planning or launching terror attacks for the purpose of advancing an ideological cause.
But so far, people acting for “proxies” that are a direct part of state infrastructure have fallen through the cracks between existing laws – and the government wants its new bill to close that loophole.
In a statement, the Home Office said the law could come into force as early as next month subject to parliamentary approval and would be used “immediately”.
It would allow the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to formally designate bodies that are “involved in foreign power threat activity” such as sabotage, espionage and political interference.
Drug dealers and arsonists targeted
The government has not confirmed what groups will be targeted with the new powers, but The i Paper understands that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is among those being considered, as well as the Foxtrot Network – a Sweden based criminal group that also acts for Iran.
Designation would trigger a suite of laws making it a crime to assist, support or take payment from listed groups, in a way that reflects the impact of banning groups as terrorist organisations.
The Government hopes that by allowing the prosecution and imprisonment of people being paid by foreign proxies, it will deter others from working on their behalf and reduce the ability of Russia, Iran and China to conduct hostile activity in Britain, The i Paper understands.
The new offences of assisting or “obtaining a material benefit from” a designated body both carry a maximum prison term of 14 years – the same as the crime of “assisting a foreign intelligence service” under the 2023 National Security Act.
An arson attack on a warehouse owned by a Ukrainian company in east London in March 2024 was among the incidents found to have been carried out on behalf of a foreign state (Photo: London Fire Brigade/PA Wire)That law has already been used to prosecute people found to be acting for Russia, China and Iran, including a British drug dealer behind an arson attack on a warehouse full of equipment destined for Ukraine’s war effort, two Romanian men involved in the stabbing of a dissident Iranian journalist and a Border Force officer and trade official spying on Hong Kong democracy campaigners for Chinese authorities.
Who slips through the net
Government officials hope that the new bill would open up the possibility of similar prosecutions for people who are not acting directly for state intelligence services, but for groups acting as their proxies.
But there are a series of tests written in the law that could frustrate their aims. In order for someone to commit the offence of supporting a designated group, the bill says they must be acting for a “prohibited purpose”.
It defines that as meaning “the person knows, or having regard to other matters known to them ought reasonably to know, is prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom”.
The law says that, in order to commit the new offences of assisting or obtaining a material benefit from foreign proxies, people need to have known “or having regard to other matters known to them ought reasonably to know” that their conduct was linked to a designated body.
However, a pattern has emerged of online recruitment through messaging apps such as Telegram, where people are offered money for specific tasks but given limited information about the nature of their target and are not told who they are working for.
Vicki Evans, the Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said last year that some people act for proxies “unwittingly” and “may not know where some of their taskings are coming from”.
“These kind of arrangements, often happening online, are held together very loosely and often involve very small amounts of money,” she added.
The Government hopes that by organising high-profile announcements when groups are designated, and transmitting warnings against people accepting money for committing crimes on behalf of others, the legal test that people should “ought reasonably to know” they are working for foreign proxies will be met and prosecutions can go ahead.
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