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.”
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.”
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-Tahrir in a legal dispute between the group and the German government, adding he did not formally represent them.
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.”
