SHAMIMA Begum will NOT be allowed back in Britain, despite calls from Donald Trump’s aide, David Lammy vowed today.
The Foreign Secretary hit back at demands from Trump’s counter-terror chief Sebastian Gorka to deal with the ISIS bride domestically.
Mr Lammy 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.”
A row over the Jihadi bride erupted yesterday after Mr Gorka declared that any country wanting to be a “serious ally” of the US must take back its citizens that joined death-cult ISIS and are now languishing in Syrian camps.
He said: “Any nation which wishes to be seen as a serious ally and friend of the most powerful nation in the world should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment.
“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.”
Blasting the call, Mr Lammy declared that the government will “always put British security interests first”.
Gorka’s comments were well received by UK terror watchdogs, who said British intelligence agencies would be able to closely watch those in question if they were brought home.
And Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terror legislation, said: “Officials may not welcome this, but the numbers are not so great that — at least in the case of women, and children, for whom special considerations ought to apply on humanitarian grounds — the UK’s well-regarded counter-terrorism system could not absorb the risk.
“The burden of monitoring could be tempered, in high-risk cases, by phased return. At the very least there should be a presumption of return.”
America has been applying pressure on its allies to repatriate their citizens since the ISIS caliphate was squashed in 2019.
Begum is believed to be one of 20 women, 40 children and 10 men born in Britain being held in a camp.
The Jihadi sympathiser was 15 when she travelled from her home in Bethnal Green, in East London to ISIS-controlled territory in 2015.
She was “married off” to a bloodthirsty fighter and then stripped of her British citizenship in 2019.
The recent upheaval in Syria and collapse of tyrant Bashar al-Assad’s regime has put the future of camps holding IS-linked prisoners in doubt.
Begum, 25, fled her home as a schoolgirl almost ten years ago to join death cult ISIS.
Her lawyer Tasnime Akunjee said her hopes of returning were “bolstered” after the successful revolution.
But a source warned The Sun: “If Shamima is allowed back in it could open the floodgates to 100 others.
“The security services keep tabs on those people in Syrian camps with a claim to UK citizenship.
“They pose a risk and would take a massive amount of resources to watch.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron today at Chequers.
The pair are expected to discuss their response to the American demands.
America has been applying pressure on its allies to repatriate their citizens since the ISIS caliphate was squashed in 2019.
In 2021, Biden’s administration also called for the UK to repatriate ISIS members held in northern Syria.
They argued it was a “moral responsibility” – but applied less pressure than Gorka who is marking an incoming Trump term sure to be stronger on foreign policy issues.
Begum lost a final appeal to reclaim her British citizenship last year, and is held in a prison camp in northeastern Syria.
ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who was born in Britain, was stripped of her British citizenship on February 20, 2019.
Begum had fled the UK in February 2015 with two other girls from the same school in East London to join the fledgling caliphate in Iraq and Syria which had emerged out of the chaos of war in those two countries.
On February 14, 2019, with the ISIS empire fell, she declared that she wanted to come home with her son.
But she appeared to show no remorse and called the 2017 Manchester Arena massacre of 22 people attending a concert “justified”.
According to BBC Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville, Begum “still believes IS propaganda”.
He said: “When I asked her about the enslavement, murder and rape of Yazidi women by IS, she said ‘Shia do the same in Iraq’.
“She had little to offer in way of apology to the millions of Iraqis and Syrians whose lives were destroyed by IS.”
Her principled position has sparked intense debate about the UK’s responsibilities to jihadis who despise the country and everything it stands for, but want to return from Syria.
The case took a dramatic turn on February 20 2019 when it emerged the Home Office had opted to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship.
The 19-year-old claims she is “willing to change” her ways while pleading for “mercy” from Britain and says newborn son Jerah is sick.
Her appeals against the decision have all been denied.
