Home Secretary Sajid Javid has been accused of denying a baby “the chance of life” after his decision to strip IS teen mother Shamima Begum of her British citizenship.
Begum’s three-week old son, Jarra, died from pneumonia in a refugee camp in Syria on Thursday.
The 19-year-old mum, from London’s Bethnal Green, fled the UK to join the terror group’s so-called caliphate as an “Isis bride” in 2015. Since then, she has lost three children.
She had asked Javid to allow her back into the UK with her child but said in interviews with journalists she had no regrets about joining IS.
Javid chose to deprive Begum of British citizenship, stating it was in the interests of public safety. The baby remained a British citizen, however, as he was born before Begum’s status changed.
In the Commons on Monday, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said she believed “as night follows day” Javid’s decision had led to the child’s death.
Javid strongly rejected he was to blame and said the “only person responsible” for Jarra’s death was “the foreign terrorist fighter”.
“We believe she should have been allowed to come home because this schoolgirl, born and brought up in Bethnal Green, was Britain’s responsibility,” Abbott said during an urgent question on the issue, adding: “But above all, it would also have given the baby a chance of life.”
Going on to launch a direct attack on Javid, Abbott claimed he made the decision “in the face of media outcry”.
She said: “Nobody on this side of the House condones what Shamima Begum did, the choices that she made, the things she said, but does the home secretary accept if it was his 19-year-old daughter, however badly she had behaved, however reprehensibly or near criminal her choices, would he want her to bury three babies in the course of one year?
“The home secretary has a responsibility to protect the British public but he also has a responsibility to appear just and fair in the eyes of the British public, which has led, as night follows day, to this less than three-week-old baby dying doesn’t appear just or fair to the majority of the British public.”
Javid insisted he acted on the advice of senior civil servants and did not accept blame for the baby’s death.
“The death of any British child, even those children born to a foreign terrorist fighter, of course is a tragedy - but the only person responsible for the death of that child is the foreign terrorist fighter,” he said.
He also said as there was no British consulate in Syria, he was unwilling to order officials into a war zone to rescue the baby.
“It is about the ability of the British state to help,” he said, adding it “would be risking the safety” of officials.
During the question in the Commons, a spat broke out between the Tories and Labour as security minister Ben Wallace and his ministerial aide, Simon Hoare, appeared to accuse Jeremy Corbyn of associating with terrorists.
Shadow Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner then lost his temper and shouted “shut up... stupid man” across the Chamber.
Wallace and Hoare were reprimanded by Speaker John Bercow after the incident.
It comes as lawyers acting for Begum’s family pleaded for the controversial decision to be reversed as “an act of mercy”.
In the letter, it was revealed Begum’s parents had not been in direct contact with the 19-year-old, adding “it is extremely unlikely that Shamima will be in a fit state to make any rational decisions”.
Asking for a reply within 24 hours, the family’s lawyer Tasnime Akunjee continued: “You will appreciate there are immediate fears for Shamima’s health and safety, and the matter is urgent.”
Begum’s case has divided opinion, with some accusing Javid of “moral cowardice” in refusing her re-entry to the country and others claiming the move put public safety first.
Separately, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said officials are working on how to rescue other British children born to IS runaways.
It has been reported two further women married into the terror group have been stripped of their UK citizenship while being held in detention camps with their children.