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A “large” number of Iranian diplomats must be expelled from the UK if Tehran is behind a series of antisemitic arson attacks, Shabana Mahmood has been told. Shadow Home Office Minister Matt Vickers urged Labour to copy the expulsion of Russian spies after the Salisbury Novichok nerve agent attack.

Security chiefs believe the move radically changed how Moscow’s intelligence officers operate in the UK. And Mr Vickers said booting Tehran’s diplomats out would “send a powerful message and degrade Iran’s ability to act on UK soil”.

One of the country’s most senior police officers warned that a spate of attacks on Jewish sites in London raises the “troubling” prospect of a foreign state using hate crime to sow discord in the UK.

Detectives and intelligence chiefs are trying to establish whether Iran has paid British criminals to carry out acts on UK soil, after a series of incidents, including an arson attack on Jewish community ambulances and attempted arson attacks at synagogues in Finchley and Kenton and a former Jewish charity in Hendon.

Mr Vickers said: “How much more Iranian action on our UK soil is needed before the Government acts to proscribe the IRGC?”

The Tory frontbencher added: “If Iran is behind these recent attacks, then large numbers of Iranian diplomats and those suspected of being Iranian spies in the UK must also be immediately expelled, as happened to Russian diplomats and spies after the Salisbury attack. This would send a powerful message and degrade Iran’s ability to act on UK soil.”

Mr Vickers asked: “Will the Government also commit to deporting any foreign national who expresses extremist views, sympathy for violence or terrorism, antisemitism or any other such religious hatred?”

Another incident saw a drone flown near the Israeli embassy in London, and a petrol bomb was thrown towards the site of Volant Media, the parent company of Persian news channel Iran International.

A group that calls itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, that is suspected to be Iran-backed, has claimed responsibility for most of the incidents, along with other attacks in Europe, since March 9.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes told LBC: “We’re going to look incredibly closely at whether those claims stand up.

“They’re intended to intimidate, so we have to distinguish what’s happening online and being broadcast and claimed, from those things we can prove.

“But I think this is an extraordinary period.

“We’ve sadly seen hate crime in our communities before, we’ve seen radicalisation towards terrorism.

“But now what we’ve got is the prospect of a foreign state actually using that as a mechanism to sow discord, discontent and to create anxiety in our communities.

“That is really troubling.”

“Thugs for hire” are risking long prison sentences for inconsequential amounts of money if they agree to carry out crimes for foreign states, he told the broadcaster.

Mr Jukes gave the example of Dylan Earl, who was jailed for 17 years after agreeing to carry out an arson attack in Leyton, east London, for the Russian-backed Wagner group in 2024.

The most recent attack saw a petrol bomb thrown through the window of Kenton United Synagogue at around midnight on Sunday, landing in a medical room.

Jewish charity the Community Security Trust (CST) said that minor smoke damage to an internal room was caused but said there were no injuries or significant structural damage.

Mr Jukes earlier told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that a 17-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the incident.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis described the arson attack as “cowardly” and said “a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum”.

His statement shared on X said: “This sustained attack on our community’s ability to worship and live in safety is an attack on the values that bind us all together.”

Video that appears to be published online by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, also known as Hayi, shows a person in dark clothing lighting an item and throwing it at the Kenton United Synagogue before running away.

It was filmed by another person behind the metal fence surrounding the building.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “appalled by recent attempted antisemitic arson attacks in north London”.

He added in his statement on X: “This is abhorrent and it will not be tolerated. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain.”

Later in the Commons, Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said those who carry out hostile acts against the UK will face “severe consequences”, and assured MPs that Iran would be held to account.