The leader of UK Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to deny Iranian government officials asylum should ongoing protests force out the regime of the country’s supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ms Badenoch, in a letter addressed to the prime minister, warned against officials of Mr Khamenei’s regime getting asylum in the UK.
She said “The Iranian Regime may be collapsing. It is certainly under severe internal pressure for the second time in recent years. The very people who have been central to sustaining this Islamist regime may now seek to escape and claim asylum in the UK along with their families.”
“They cannot be allowed to do so. It would be a moral outrage were that to happen, and their presence would pose a risk to our national security.”
Citing relevant UN laws to back her arguement, Ms Badenoch said “Under Article IF of the UN Refugee Convention we can refuse their cases. We can also under Article 33 remove someone who constitutes a danger to the UK.”
The Tory leader said it was critical for the UK government to take possible steps to prevent the members of the Iranian regime from coming to the country.
She stated, “Will the Prime Minister now instruct the Home Secretary to use all her legal powers to protect Britain and to issue specific guidance on this matter to Border Force and other agencies?”
According to the Tory leader, for decades the mullahs in Tehran have led a terrible regime which made the lives of many Iranians miserable.
Ms Badenoch said, “Within Iran, people have been harassed, tortured, imprisoned and executed. Beyond its borders, from the Middle East to Argentina, the Iranian regime has fomented terror murdering Jews and destabilising whole regions.
“Even here in Britain, Iran poses a very significant threat and according to our security services has sought to carry out multiple assassination attempts.”
Ms Badenoch’s letter to the prime minister comes followed the ongoing protests rocking Iran.
On December 28, Iran’s staggering inflation stood at 42 per cent and its currency, the rial, plummeted to an all-time low of 1.4 million rials per dollar.
The development sparked a nationwide protests that saw merchants, traders, and university students on the street, disrupting commercial and public activities across the country.
Over 100 people have been reportedly killed during the protests. On Saturday, American President, Donald Trump, who had vowed to hit Iran hard should lethal force be used against the protesters, said U.S. was ready to help Iranians get freedom.
However, Mr Khamenei’s dismissed the protests sparked by economic crisis in the country as plot by vandals to burn down the country to please Mr Trump.
“There are people whose job is only about destruction,” Mr Khamenei said, adding that his government “will not back down” amid the protests that have rocked the country since December 28.
