Declassified UK

The Brief – Issue 42 – 6 March 2025

Some foreign agents are more equal than others

This week, Britain’s security minister Dan Jarvis issued a largely overlooked statement on the “growing threat to the UK from Iran and the steps the government is taking to combat these threats”.
 

In one of those steps, Jarvis said, the UK government will be implementing a Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), which will obligate individuals or entities to register if they are directed by a foreign power to carry out political activities in Britain.
 

The scheme will have two tiers: the “political influence tier” and the “enhanced tier”. The first will relate to political activities carried out under the direction of a foreign power, such as lobbying MPs, and the latter will focus on a much “broader range of activity”, which could include journalism and research programmes.
 

Jarvis confirmed that “the whole of the Iranian State – including Iran’s intelligence services” would be placed on the enhanced tier. “This action will mean that those who are directed by Iran to conduct activities in the UK… must register that activity, whatever it is, or face 5 years in prison”.
 

It is unclear which other countries will join Iran on the “enhanced tier”, though Russia seems certain to be added. MI5 has also urged the Home Office to include China, but the government is still deliberating on this given the likely political fallout.
 

The use of this type of legislation dates back to 1938, when US Congress passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in reaction to the proliferation of Nazi propaganda in the country.
 

Yet over the past two decades, similar laws have mushroomed globally with Russia, China, Hungary, India, Cambodia, Australia, and Uganda all implementing foreign agent legislation, and the US using it much more aggressively.
 

Unsurprisingly, these laws have been criticised as draconian, open to abuse, and for being selectively applied on the basis of each state’s geopolitical alliances. There is little reason to believe that Britain’s new legislation will operate any differently.
 

Indeed, the irony has not been lost on some that its implementation was likely influenced by the Israeli government, which views Iran as its most important regional adversary, and associated pro-Israel lobby organisations in the UK. And these interests were certainly pleased with the announcement.
 

Yossi Zilberman, the political counsellor at the Israeli embassy in London, responded that the new legislation was “an important move in the right direction! Iran is a threat… in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and to the entire world. Iran must be deterred, together!”
 

Labour Friends of Israel chair Jon Pearce said he was “extremely grateful” to Jarvis for his statement and “his unwavering commitment to address the threat posed by the Iranian regime here in the UK”.
 

To this end, while the tiered system already signifies that the legislation will be applied selectively, it will be interesting to see whether pro-Israel lobby groups in Britain get caught up in it. If Washington’s exclusion of AIPAC from FARA is anything to go by, the chances are they won’t.
 

What’s more, according to the Home Office’s fact sheet on FIRS, information on foreign funding may not be released to the public “where there is a risk that publication would prejudice the national security of the UK”. This could provide the Home Office with a broad remit to censor the financial activities of its allies, such as the US and Israel.

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