Iran is “playing a dangerous game” by allowing the Houthi rebels to attack ships in the Red Sea, according to Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.

He told GB News: “If you look at the situation throughout the region, throughout the Middle East, you’ve got the Iranian-backed Houthis, you’ve got Lebanese Hezbollah, you’ve got Hamas themselves trained by Iran. You’ve got militant groups in Iraq and Syria. They are firmly behind a lot of these problems.

“We are increasing our pressure on them because there are diplomatic relations, for example, the Foreign Secretary has been speaking to his Iranian opposite number and saying you have to put a lid on this. We understand that they don’t want to see this conflict, clearly not when it comes to the Houthis, for example.

“And it’s a very, very dangerous game for them to be playing. And we are calling on them, and others like China who have an interest, for example, particularly in the trade that comes through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, to make that message particularly clear to the Iranians that no good can come of this and they need to calm and cool the situation in the region.”

On proscribing Iran-linked militant groups, he told Camilla Tominey: “Well, we always keep proscription under very, very close review. There are always pros and cons with doing this you lose diplomatic relations and that type of thing.

“When it comes to the Houthis in particular and, as I said, I’ve just been down to the Red Sea, they don’t have very much connectivity to this country in the same way. But we’ll look at that very carefully.

“We are already ensuring that we have quite a number of their individual leaders who are already sanctioned in this country, but I know the Home Secretary will be looking at all of that very carefully indeed.”

Asked about shortages of military personnel, he said: “It is true that there are strong recruitment issues.

“I’m pleased to report – actually I was just talking to the head of the Army who tells me that applications are at a high for the last six years, so we will make sure that we keep people coming into the army.”