Legal aid rules being examined after ruling on Begum, says PM

PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has revealed Ministers are examining the legal aid eligibility rules after a court ruled Shamima Begum could return to the UK to fight the decision to strip her of British citizenship.

The Court of Appeal ruled last Thursday that Ms Begum – one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group (IS) – could mount a “fair and effective appeal” only if she was in the UK.

The Government expressed its “bitter disappointment” at the court ruling allowing her to return to the UK to challenge the deprivation of her British citizenship.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph yesterday, Mr

Johnson said: “It seems to me to be at least odd and perverse that somebody can be entitled to legal aid when they are not only outside the country, but have had their citizenship deprived for the protection of national security. “That, amongst other things, we will be looking at.” The Prime Minister said the Government would also be looking at the whole system of judicial review to establish whether it had “perverse consequences”. “What we are looking at is whether there are some ways in which judicial review does indeed go too far or does indeed have perverse consequences that were not perhaps envisaged when the tradition of judicial review began,” he said.

Ms Begum (inset), who is now 20, travelled to Syria in February 2015 and lived under IS rule for more than three years before she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year. Her son died of pneumonia shortly after birth.

Then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds later that month.

Ms Begum took legal action against the Home Office, claiming the decision was unlawful because it rendered her stateless and exposed her to a real risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.

A Home Office spokeswoman said officials would be applying for permission to appeal against the court’s judgment.

Campaigners welcomed the ruling and said it was the “right decision and British citizens should welcome it”.