Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, has urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to strip British jihadists who could leave Syria after the fall of the Assad regime of their citizenship. The Tory leader called on the Prime Minister to “take the side of the British people”, remove citizenship from the fighters and stop them from coming back to the UK to “destroy this country”.
Sir Keir dodged the question during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. Ms Badenoch said: “The Prime Minister has consistently backed criminals over law abiding British people. He defended terrorists like Hizb ut-Tahrir in the European court. He argued all immigration law had a racist undercurrent. He voted against life sentences for people smugglers.”
“He voted against more than 100 measures to control migration. He even said it was wrong when the Conservatives took away Shamima Begum’s citizenship. Now he has appointed her defence lawyer as his attorney general. Events in Syria mean we may see more small boat arrivals. For once will he take the side of the British people and strip citizenship from jihadi terrorists and supporters of Assad who want to come back and destroy this country?”
Sir Keir responded by highlighting his record as Director of Public Prosecutions, saying he had prosecuted “hundreds of thousands of criminals” including “huge terrorist gangs, rapists”. He told Ms Badenoch: “So for her to stand there and say I haven’t done anything in law enforcement, I dedicated five years of my life to law enforcement, locking up criminals which is more than she can say.”
About a dozen hardened Islamic State fighters from the UK are being held in prisons in northern Syria controlled by Kurdish forces. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has argued that any with dual nationality should be stripped of their British citizenship while those who are British citizens should be refused entry.
