Amber Rudd is facing calls to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation over its suppression of protesters and support for militants.

Dozens of MPs from across the Commons have backed a motion calling for the Home Secretary to include the regime's elite unit on an official list of proscribed organisations and impose sanctions on its officials.

The disclosure comes after the group, formally called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was deployed to put down anti-government unrest in Iran during a week of protests that left more than 20 people dead.

Of 69 MPs backing the Commons early day motion, more than 30 are Labour backbenchers - a fact likely to embarrass Jeremy Corbyn, who has since been criticised for failing to personally condemn the actions of the Iranian regime.

They include the former frontbenchers David Lammy, Joan Ryan, and Frank Field. It calls on the Government "to include the IRGC on the list of proscribed organisations, impose punitive measures against its officials and to work with allies to expel the IRGC from Syria, Iraq and the Middle East."

Bob Blackman, a Conservative backbencher, who tabled the motion in October, before last week's unrest, described the protesters as "very brave individuals".

He warned that the unit, a branch of the military which acts as a protection force to the regime, is also involved in "slaughtering the people of Syria" in order to keep Bashar al-Assad in power.