Iran’s UK centre paid £240k in Covid cash

AN ISLAMIC centre branded the “nerve centre” for Iran in the UK received more than £240,000 in government Covid payments despite having a reserve of £4.2 million, it has been revealed.

The Islamic Centre of England (ICE), described as the voice of Iran’s supreme leader in the UK, received furlough payments of £109,476 in 2020 and £129,556 in 2021.

The payments were revealed in a report by the think tank Policy Exchange which called for a ban on visas for Iranian nationals to work at the centre.

The report said all four directors of the centre since 1994 had been named as UK representatives of Iran’s supreme leader. It has also frequently held events to mark the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In 2020, the centre hosted a vigil for Qassim Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killed in a drone strike that January.

Last year the Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry into ICE amid serious governance concerns. It appointed an interim manager “due to the trustees’ failure to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities and their failure to protect the charity’s assets”. Policy Exchange said the inquiry should report in two months.

Paul Stott, head of security and extremism at Policy Exchange, said: “Iran challenges our security, but it also threatens the UK’S social cohesion and our values.

“Allowing it to build and sustain an infrastructure in this country is madness. We need to get much smarter in our response, and that starts with proper control of the visa system.”

ICE was contacted for comment. A spokesman has previously said the centre was a “purely religious and cultural organisation, which provides various services to the local communities”.

The spokesman added: “It is an independent charity regulated by British law, which is totally funded by the local beneficiaries. The majority of the trustees, donors, and attendees are British citizens. Indeed, this charity is nothing to do with politics, while we strongly believe that the politically motivated lobbies are trying to drag the charity into their political disputes.”