Britain’s representative on the UN Security Council has been criticised after standing in silence to mark the death of Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s hardline president.

James Kuriuki, the UK’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, joined his colleagues to observe a moment of silence for the leader, whose killings earned him the nickname the “Butcher of Tehran”.

The British diplomat stood alongside his American counterpart at the beginning of the 9,629th meeting of the Security Council, for the silence requested by Russia, China and Algeria.

Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, said: “Standing in silence for the death of the president of Iran in the UN has to be one of the lowest points for the Foreign Office.”

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Cabinet minister, added: “Diplomacy is a matter of judgment. We have to talk to regimes we don’t like but that doesn’t mean we ought to honour them in death.”

Alicia Kearns, the Tory MP and chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: “The UK recognises states, not individual governments, and as such the minute’s silence was in respect of the country and the rank of the individual.

“However, for my part, one can respect the silence without standing for a man whose regime has committed femicide, is funding terror globally and has attempted assassinations on UK and European shores.”

Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash alongside Hossein Amirabdollahian, his foreign minister, earlier this week.