PM urged to strip UK citizenship from ‘jihadi terrorists and Assad supporters’
Kemi Badenoch has urged Sir Keir Starmer to remove UK citizenship from any “jihadi terrorists and supporters of Assad” who want to return from Syria.
The Conservative Party leader said the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime could increase small boat arrivals to the UK, as she also attacked Prime Minister Sir Keir’s record on immigration.
Mrs Badenoch used Prime Minister’s Questions to claim Sir Keir had “consistently backed criminals”, call on him to support a migration cap and ask him to apologise for signing a letter in February 2020 which called for a deportation flight to be halted.
She added “one of those criminals” who was not deported went on to murder someone, adding to Sir Keir in the Commons: “He was able to stay here and murder because people like this man campaigned against deporting criminals.”
“Experiment”
Sir Keir defended his recorded and pointed to his five years of service as director of public prosecutions, while also accusing Mrs Badenoch of being a “champion” of the Tories’ “one nation experiment in open borders”.
On Monday, the UK announced it had paused decisions on asylum applications from Syrians following the collapse of the Assad regime.
Millions of Syrians fled the country after the outbreak of civil war and the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on opponents.
In her concluding remarks at PMQs, Mrs Badenoch said: “The Prime Minister has consistently backed criminals over law-abiding British people.
“He defended terrorists, like Hizb ut-Tahrir in the European court. He argued all immigration law had a racist undercurrent. He voted against life sentences for people smugglers.
“He voted against more than 100 measures to control migration. He even said it was wrong when the Conservatives took away Shamima Begum’s citizenship.”
“More small boats”
Ms Begum, who has been living in a Syrian refugee camp, was stripped of her citizenship after travelling to so-called Islamic State-controlled territory in the country as a 15-year-old in 2015.
Mrs Badenoch added: “Events in Syria mean we may see more small boat arrivals. For once will he take the side of the British people and strip citizenship from jihadi terrorists and supporters of Assad who want to come back and destroy this country?”
Sir Keir replied: “I was director of public prosecutions for five years. Unlike anyone on their benches, I was prosecuting for five years, hundreds of thousands of criminals, that includes huge terrorist gangs.
“I was working for three of those five years with the then-home secretary Theresa May, who commended the work that I did at the end of those five years. So for her to stand there and say, ‘I haven’t done anything in law enforcement’, I dedicated five years of my life to law enforcement, locking up criminals, which is more than she can say.”
Labour has previously said Sir Keir was asked to give advice to Hizb ut-Tahri in a legal dispute between the group and the German government, adding he did not formally represent them.
Uncertainty
Sir Keir opened PMQs by welcoming the fall of the Assad regime, telling MPs: “The people of Syria suffered for far too long under his brutal regime.
“What comes next is far from certain. We’ve been talking to regional and global allies to ensure that it is a political solution which protects civilians and minorities, and absolutely rejects terrorism and violence.”
What followed was the clash between the two leaders in which Sir Keir and Mrs Badenoch traded blows over their respective records on migration.
After Mrs Badenoch question why cutting immigration was “not a priority” for the Government, Sir Keir replied: “I’m glad she now wants to talk about immigration, last week she said she didn’t, and for good reason, because the previous government presided over record high levels of immigration. The figures just a few weeks ago, nearly a million on net migration.
“That is unprecedented, a one nation experiment in open borders under the last government, and she was the champion, she stood up and praised the then-Tory home secretary for listening to her on removing caps on migration visas.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Working class kemi was all over the place today including misinformation on Starmer, but this stuff will stick for the usaul suspects. It is incredible that she went down this road after her and her governments actions of 14 years destroying the system up to a few Truss’s ago, the only reason I can think of is her recent visit to see Vance.
Probably picked up a few tips from vance on how to spread rumours and lies and blame ” [insert abusive term here] immigrants” .
The Cuckoo knows no loyalty except to itself…
Who said she is working class…!
She said she was working class by working in mcdonalds. She also said she doesn’t make mistakes.
The story of our pink world sits on the Tory front bench, each is a creation of England, each fits in some part of the four dimensional machine that was/is our ‘Empire’ Look how grotesque it all is, contorted and hateful
I give you the Fat Shanks Effect and like Dr Who a shape-shifter and body snatcher…pile them high…the mentality of a Himmler…
Badenoch – the Tories’ fourth consecutive leadership mistake. She blew all six questions at PMQs exposing her own partys’ failings on net migration and small boats amid which she accused Starmer of not answering a question. I can only presume she was never present at a Sunak or Johnson PMQs. (I can barely recall a Truss one). Clueless. Her days must be numbered. If it’s not embarrassing enough simply to be a Tory, having to sit behind her must surely awaken this emotion.