Iran leader's money man stooge set to build luxury flats in 'powerless' UK

One of the new Iranian supreme leader's henchmen is set to build ultra-luxury flats in an ultra-exclusive London neighbourhood, despite being slapped with sanctions for being "corrupt". Mojtaba Khamenei, who was promoted to lead the Iranian regime after his father was killed on February 28, is understood to be sitting on a property portfolio of up to £200million in the UK capital, including several dilapidated mansions in "Billionaire's Row".

Iranian banker Ali Ansari - who was sanctioned by the UK in October for corruption - is believed to own the properties on behalf of the new Ayatollah. One of his assets, found on Britain's third-most expensive street, The Bishop's Avenue, has had its application to convert the plot into 33 flats approved. This comes as MPs have slammed Sir Keir Starmer's "toothless" Government for failing to crack down on Iranian "dirty" money in the UK, some six weeks after the war between Iran, the US and Israel began.

The Bishop's Avenue, an exclusive street in North London, is home to 66 mega-mansions each worth around £9million, with at least 12 of them thought to be owned by Iran, according to The Sun.

As part of his latest planning project being approved, Barnet Council accepted a payment of £1million so he did not have to provide “affordable housing,” despite council and Government targets. The council told The Sun they had no knowledge of the development’s Iranian connections when they approved the plans and accepted the cash.

MPs have called on the Government to take action, accusing the council of accepting a “dirty cash” payment from Ansari.

Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith called on the council to reverse their decision, blasting the Government’s sanctions as “pathetically weak”.

"The government’s sanctions are without teeth. Barnet Council would not be able to have done this if the government had a backbone and acted," he said. “Barnet Council should reverse the approval, it is dodgy, and they have accepted a dirty cash payment from the applicant too.”

He added that the flow of Iranian-linked money into the UK poses a national security threat: "The council should not be doing any business with anybody or anything with Iran connections. But ultimately I think the government is to blame for their weak stance on this mess.

“It is a mockery that Iran is still pursuing projects in the country while under sanction; the government should seize the assets and clamp down hard.

“They are the enemy and a security risk.”

Barnet Council has claimed that when it approved the planning proposal, it was “not aware of any associations with the Iranian regime”.

Barry Rawlings, leader of Barnet Council, said: “It is extremely concerning that an individual, currently sanctioned by the UK Government, might be able to engage in, or benefit from, development in this country, and we are actively looking into what action might be taken.

“It is important to make clear, that at the time of the planning decision, the council was not aware of any associations with the Iranian regime, and the individual was not on the sanctions list at the time.

“I do believe that this issue, and any ownership of property by the Iranian regime, is something the Government should look into, and we will work with Government on any actions that need to be taken.

“In terms of the cash payment, independent viability experts confirmed the scheme could not support on-site affordable housing.

“In accordance with planning policy, the Council secured a £1 million payment in lieu of delivering affordable homes on-site through a legal agreement, plus a review mechanism to capture any future uplift for affordable housing provision the site might provide in future.”