The security minister has signalled there are UK Government splits over moves to add the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to a list of banned terrorist organisations.

Tom Tugendhat said both he and Home Secretary Suella Braverman are “as one” on taking further steps against the IRGC, based in Maida Vale, as MPs pressed the Government to act.

But Mr Tugendhat also told the Commons “it’s not me he has to persuade in this matter” after Conservative Bob Blackman (Harrow East) asked for the IRGC to be proscribed in its entirety.

The Times newspaper last week reported plans to proscribe the IRGC have stalled after the Foreign Office raised concerns about keeping communication channels open with the Iranian regime.

MPs last month unanimously supported a non-binding motion urging the UK Government to make it a criminal offence to be a member of or invite support for Iran’s IRGC.

The UK has imposed sanctions on Iranian officials in recent months, including in response to a violent crackdown on protests against the regime.

Speaking at Home Office questions, Labour MP Virendra Sharma (Ealing Southall) said: “It has been patently obvious for years that the whole Iranian government is rotten.

“IRGC leaders are allowed to travel to the UK and store their stolen wealth here almost with impunity.

“The people of Iran are fighting back. Why don’t we stop their abusers stealing their wealth off the country and sanction more than just 50 people at the top of the organisation?”

Mr Tugendhat replied: “(Mr Sharma) is absolutely correct. The IRGC is a vicious organisation and its first victims are the Iranian people who have been brutalised and murdered by that despotic regime for far too long.

“I hope he will be encouraged by the actions that the UK Government is taking at the moment in looking into various of these areas, and also by the work actually been done by some of our partners.

“It’s interesting to note that of the so-called E3+3, Germany and France appear to be looking at proscribing the IRGC, as the United States has already done.

“So it seems that there is international agreement that (Mr Sharma) is not only correct but that action is absolutely ready to go.”

Conservative Bob Blackman (Harrow East) noted Foreign Office ministers have always replied to urgent questions and debates on the issue in the Commons, adding: “Will (Mr Tugendhat) now take the obvious step that is supported by all political parties in this chamber and proscribe the IRGC in its entirety?”

Mr Tugendhat replied: “(Mr Blackman) will know that it’s not me he has to persuade in this matter and there are many areas where I would like to go – and I can assure him that this Government is absolutely listening to exactly what he is saying, and the Home Secretary are as one on this.”