Shamima Begum’s citizenship should never have been taken away

The Supreme Court has today upheld the ban on Shamima Begum returning to this country to contest the Home Secretary’s decision to strip her of her citizenship. The judges ruled that her right to a fair hearing did not trump national security considerations.

But Begum should never have been stripped of her citizenship in the first place. She was born in this country, grew up here and was educated here. This makes her British. To pretend otherwise is absurd.

Stripping her of her citizenship allows us to ignore the fact that someone from this country – a liberal democracy with the rule of law – went to live in a self-proclaimed caliphate that so offended against the values we hold most dear. Begum’s actions are something that we as a country should want to take charge of investigating. We should want to ensure that justice is done, and seen to be done, in our courts for her actions.