No British IS fighters should be allowed back in UK

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has claimed that British citizens who have fought for and alongside ISIS should not be allowed back into the country.

It is believed that at least 800 Britons travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for the terrorist group, of which 130 are reported to have been killed in conflict.

An interview, published in the Daily Mail, reported Williamson as saying: “I do not believe that any terrorist, whether they come from this country or any other, should ever be allowed back into this country.”

Discussing British fighters who had fled to other countries, Williamson warned that they found and stopped from returning to the UK, highlighting his determination that there would be no safe space abroad for such fighters. The interview states that as ‘they splinter and disperse across Iraq and Syria’, authorities must ‘continue to hunt them down’.

Controversially, and in contrast to Williamson’s comments, Max Hill QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, has previously shared his thoughts that Britons who joined ISIS through ‘naivety’ should be reintegrated into society if they return home.