Robert Jenrick has launched a furious attack on the European Court of Human Rights after it reopened the case of Shamima Begum, warning she must never be allowed to return to the UK.
Speaking on GB News, the Shadow Justice minister said Begum “chose to associate with Isis terrorists” and made a “catastrophic misjudgment” by betraying Britain, insisting she should “not set foot on British soil under any circumstances”.
Speaking to GB News, Mr Jenrick said: “Under no circumstances should Shamima Begum ever step foot on British soil again.
“She chose to associate herself with Isis terrorists, effectively betraying her own country. That was a catastrophic misjudgment, and she must be held accountable for it.
“But the most important issue here is that decisions on national security should be made by our own ministers and our own courts.
“A decade ago, Sajid Javid, the-then Home Secretary, took that decision. It was challenged again and again in the courts, ultimately reaching the UK Supreme Court.
Robert Jenrick said that she ‘betrayed Britain’
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GB NEWS
“Judges ruled that Sajid Javid had acted lawfully and was fully entitled, under British law, to make such a significant decision in the interests of national security.
“Now, however, we are seeing foreign judges in Strasbourg claiming they know better, potentially overturning not just the decision of a British Home Secretary, but the judgment of our own Supreme Court.
“This once again underlines the need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
“What could be more important than allowing our own Parliament, our own ministers and our own courts to decide matters of national security including who should, and should not, be allowed to live in this country?”
The European Court of Human Rights has formally contacted the Home Office regarding Begum’s citizenship case
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GETTY
He added: “It is fundamentally undemocratic. And that is why I have argued as many others in politics have that this view is now close to becoming a majority position in the country.
“We should leave the European Convention on Human Rights and restore power to our own Parliament so we can make these decisions ourselves.
“This case illustrates the problem better than almost any other. A British Home Secretary and all his successors have agreed that Shamima Begum represents a threat to national security.
“Our own courts, right up to the Supreme Court, have upheld the decision to revoke her citizenship.
“And yet, years later, we now have a foreign court meddling in our affairs and seeking to overturn that decision.
“Frankly, if other European countries want Shamima Begum, they can grant her citizenship.
“She can go and live in Belgium, Luxembourg or Strasbourg. But most people in this country rightly do not want someone associated with ISIS coming here to live among us.”
Shamima Begum’s legal team at Birnberg Peirce Solicitors have called the ECHR’s move an “unprecedented opportunity.”
But the intervention could trigger a major showdown between Whitehall and Strasbourg.
ECHR judges have asked the UK Government whether it violated human rights or anti-trafficking laws.
The Home Office now faces four questions over how it stripped Begum of her citizenship.
One of the questions focuses on whether Article 4 of the Convention was breached during the revocation.