Labour has said it will not seek to block the government’s decision to ban the political wing of Hezbollah in the UK, but suggested the move by Sajid Javid was motivated by his leadership ambitions rather than actual evidence.

Membership of the Lebanon-based group’s military wing is already outlawed, but the proscription will now be extended to its political arm, the home secretary announced on Monday.

Labour has previously advocated dialogue with Hezbollah’s political wing.

At a parliamentary event in 2009, Jeremy Corbyn referred to members of Hezbollah as “friends”, a use of words he later said he regretted, and that was intended only to promote peace efforts.

On Tuesday the measure proscribing Hezbollah’s political wing was being put to the Commons as part of an amendment to the 2000 Terrorism Act, also outlawing support for two West African Islamist groups, Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and Ansaroul Islam.

A Labour spokesman said the party would not oppose the measure overall, but argued that there did not seem to be sufficient evidence for the move, noting also that Hezbollah was part of the Lebanese government.

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“The Home Office has previously ruled that there was not sufficient evidence that the political wing of Hezbollah fell foul of proscription criteria, a position confirmed by ministers in the House of Commons last year. Ministers have not yet provided any clear evidence to suggest this has changed,” he said.



“Decisions on the proscription of organisations as terror groups are supposed to be made on the advice of civil servants based on clear evidence that those organisations fall foul of the proscription criteria set out in legislation.

“The home secretary must therefore now demonstrate that this decision was taken in an objective and impartial way, and driven by clear and new evidence, not by his leadership ambitions.”

Hezbollah – or the Party of God – is a Shia Muslim movement which emerged during the early 1980s with financial backing from Iran. Its political wing is already proscribed by the US state department, but not by the EU. From Friday, membership will be a criminal offence, carrying a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in the UK.

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Labour backed the barring of the other groups, active in Mali and Burkino Faso respectively, the spokesman added. With Labour MPs not objecting, there is unlikely to be a vote on the changes.

Asked about the Labour view, Theresa May’s spokesman said: “It’s obviously for the opposition to explain why they have taken that decision.

“In light of Hezbollah’s increasingly destabilising behaviour over recent years we believe it is right to proscribe the entire organisation. Hezbollah itself has publicly denied a distinction between its military and political wings.

“The group in its entirety is assessed to be concerned in terrorism. The links between the senior leaders of Hezbollah’s political and military wings, as well as the group’s destabilising role in the region mean that the distinction between the two wings is now untenable.”