Shabana Mahmood didn’t “protect Britain.” She delivered exactly what months of political pressure demanded: the proscription of the IRGC under the new National Security Act. And she did it using powers so broad they can jail people for fourteen years simply for “supporting” the IRGC — which, according to Middle East Eye, includes expressing a positive opinion. That’s not counterterrorism. It’s the government expanding its reach and selling it as security.
This government has stopped pretending it serves the British public. It serves foreign interests first, and it expects everyone else to swallow it quietly. The IRGC designation wasn’t about safety. It was about signalling obedience. It was about showing the Israel‑aligned security lobby that Labour will bend whenever told to.
And the law wrapped around this move is even worse. The National Security Act criminalises “support,” “assistance,” “promotion,” and “material benefit” — vague terms that can be stretched to fit whatever the government wants. It removes the requirement to prove a foreign power connection in many cases, meaning prosecution becomes easier, looser, and more political. Civil liberties groups are already warning that journalists could be exposed if their reporting is interpreted as “support.” That’s not paranoia. It’s literally what the law says they can do.
Fourteen years in prison for speech. Fourteen years for reporting. Fourteen years for being on the wrong side of a government that now decides what opinions are legal.
Britain is being governed by people who fear scrutiny more than threats. People who treat journalism as espionage. People who believe loyalty to a foreign state’s security agenda matters more than protecting civil liberties at home. This is the most authoritarian UK government in modern history, and they’re not even subtle about it.
If they can criminalise journalists today, they can criminalise you tomorrow — not for what you do, but for what you think. They’ve already shown they’re willing to shred rights, muzzle dissent, and weaponise “national security” against the public.
They’re not just coming for speech. They’re coming for thought. And unless people wake up, they’ll get it.
