Shamima Begum 'won't be allowed to return to UK' says David Lammy

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David Lammy has stated that Shamima Begum will not be allowed to return to the UK.

It comes after Donald Trump's incoming counter-terrorism chief suggested that British members of ISIS currently held in Syrian prison camps should be repatriated.

The future of London-born Ms Begum has been uncertain since the fall of the Assad regime. Sebastian Gorka, who is set to take a key role in the Trump administration, said any nation wishing to be seen as a "serious ally" of the US should commit to taking back citizens in north eastern Syria.

However, Mr Lammy insisted that the Government would "always put British security interests first and the safeguarding of our population".

Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain, he said: "Shamima Begum will not be coming back to the UK. It's gone right through the courts. She's not a UK national.

"We will not be bringing her back to the UK. We're really clear about that. We will act in our security interests. And many of those in those camps are dangerous, are radicals."

He warned that some of them, if they were to return to the UK, "would have to be, frankly, jailed as soon as they arrived", reports the Mirror.

Ms Begum was 15 when she travelled from Bethnal Green, east London, into territory controlled by IS in 2015. She was "married off" to an IS fighter and was stripped of her British citizenship in February 2019.

Mr. Gorka stated in an interview with The Times: "Any nation which wishes to be seen to be a serious ally and friend of the most powerful nation in the world should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment" when questioned about whether the UK should be forced to accept Isis members back. "That is doubly so for the UK which has a very special place in President Trump's heart and we would all wish to see the 'special relationship' fully re-established."

Tens of thousands of captured foreign IS members and their children are being held in vast camps and detention centres under the watchful eye of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Western-allied anti-Assad organisation.

The Times revealed that Ms Begum is among a group of up to 20 women, 40 children, and 10 men from the UK being detained in these camps.

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