Why Shamima Begum should not have been allowed to return

It is startling to see the Court of Appeal take over the Home Secretary’s responsibility in deciding who should be allowed to enter the UK – judging for itself the relative importance of national security considerations. But this is what the Court did in its judgment today, by opening the door for Shamima Begum to return to Britain. In doing so, it is undermining the statutory powers that Parliament enacted to enable the government to protect the public from the risk of terrorism.

In February last year, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid, stripped Begum of her British citizenship, barring her return to Britain. Begum had travelled to Syria four years earlier, aged 15, to join ISIS. The Court of Appeal has undermined the Home Secretary’s decision, not by allowing Begum’s appeal, but by ruling that she has to be granted leave to enter the UK in order to have a fair and effective appeal.