Shamima Begum: MPs and senior police voice their support for ISIS bride pleading to return to UK

MPs and senior law enforcement figures have voiced their support for the controversial return of ISIS bride Shamima Begum to the UK.

The Bethnal Green teenager ran away from London four years ago as a 15-year-old schoolgirl to Syria to join ISIS.

After a bombshell Times interview in which Begum revealed she wants to return to the UK to give birth on the NHS, MPs and other senior figures said she should be allowed to do so.

However security Minister Ben Wallace said Begum, now 19, can return to Britain but will risk prosecution when she comes back.

Former Met Police Chief Superintendent Dal Babu said Begum's request needs to be dealt with in the context that she and the two other girls she fled with were “groomed”.

Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire, he said: “The family want her back. These three girls were 15-year-old children who were groomed.

“They were on the internet, they were radicalised, their families had no idea whatsoever about what was going on.

“Their families assumed they were getting ready for a wedding, but then they disappeared. We really need to understand that we’ve got 15-year-old children who were individuals who were groomed, and we see this happening on the internet all the time, unfortunately”.

Womens Equality UK said: “Shamima Begum was groomed as a child, forced to marry and bear children.

“Past trauma isn't undone by arbitrary ideas of adulthood and our desire for remorse. The shameful response from government shows how little they have learned from recent Child Sexual Exploitation cases.”

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said “under our law she is entitled to return”, but said she should the “law should continue to take its course if she has committed offences”.

He added: “Though, one has to think that a 15-year-old, there may be an extent that she is more sinned against than sinning when she went out there.

“I would be reluctant to be too harsh in charging, in this instance.”

Britain's former conter-terrorism tsar said the east London schoolgirl will have to be accepted into the UK if she still only has British citizenship.

Lord Carlile told BBC Radio 5 Live if Ms Begum has not gained a second citizenship of another country she will be allowed back to her homeland because under international law it is not possible for a person to be made "stateless".

He added: "The law is that she has to be readmitted to the United Kingdom at some point if she has no other nationality.

"If she has acquired the nationality of another country, my view would be that we should not accept her back into the UK - but I don't believe that to be the case.

"So she will, if (she is) only a UK citizen, be allowed back, because it is not possible under international law for a person to be rendered stateless."

When asked if Ms Begum could be tried for treason he said: "The short answer to your question is 'no'."

Sir Peter Fahy, a former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, told the Today programme that if Ms Begum returns, her safety must be considered.

He said: “The biggest challenge if she did come back will be how the police will keep her safe and how she wouldn’t be some sort of lightning rod for both Islamic and far-right extremists.

“If she still holds those views, that’s clearly going to be an enormous challenge and you can understand why the government is not particularly interested in facilitating her return.”

Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, said at the time of the girls’ disappearance she fought for the home secretary, Theresa May, and the Turkish authorities to prevent the girls from crossing into the border into Syria.

Speaking today, she said: “If it is the case that Shamima Begum is trying to return to the UK, it is now a matter for the UK police, security services and the Foreign Office, who will rightly need to consider public safety and our national security in cases such as these.”

The father of ISIS bride Amira Abase has also called on the Government to allow the girls back into the UK and claims she represents “no threat.”