By Ben Kerrigan-
Jeremy Corbyn’s defence of Legal Aid for Shamina Begum is flawed and questions the credibility of his reasoning on certain serious matters.
Corbyn recently joined lawyers and human rights groups in defending the right of Shamima Begum to be granted legal aid to allow the ISIS bride to challenge the decision to remove her UK citizenship. Corbyn’s has insisted that Begum’s offences does not deprive her from proper legal representation because she is a British national. The labour leader got it wrong on this basic fact because Begum lost her British citizenship when she was stripped of it back in February. Corbyn erroneously said:
“She is a British national and therefore she has that right, like any of us do, to apply for legal aid if she has a problem. She has legal rights, just like anybody else does,” he told reporters on Monday.
“The whole point of legal aid is that if you’re facing a prosecution then you’re entitled to be represented and that’s a fundamental rule of law, a fundamental point in any democratic society.” The reality is that Begum’s family ought to find the money to fight the Home Office honourable decision to strip her of her citizenship after she betrayed the country and the British people.
Corbyn needs to get his facts right here because Begum is no longer a British national. The fact she was once a British national is irrelevant to the present because that right has been taken from her. The reserved right of the Home Office to deprive citizens like Begum from their British citizenship denies them the right to legal aid to fight the decision to strip them of their citizenship.
There is no default position that retains the citizenship of those who are stripped of their citizenship whilst they appeal the judgement of the Home Secretary.The Legal Aid Agency has yet to formally approve her application, it is being widely assumed she will be successful. The case will come before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), which adjudicates on cases where the home secretary has stripped someone of their nationality on grounds of national security. Solicitor Gareth Peirce who represented the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four, will represent Begum.
Lord Chancellor David Gauke has yet to make any public statement on the matter. His cabinet colleague Jeremy Hunt admitted yesterday he was ‘uncomfortable’ with Begum receiving legal aid, but added: ‘We are a country that believes that people with limited means should have access to the resources of the state if they want to challenge the decisions the state has made about them’.
The Legal Aid Agency said it does not comment on individual cases, but said anybody applying for legal aid in a Special Immigration Appeal Commission is subject to ‘strict eligibility tests’. Applicants must meet means and merits tests when applying for legal aid in these cases.