Calls for Syria's Asma al-Assad to lose her UK citizenship

MPs have called for Asma al-Assad, the wife of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, to be stripped of her British citizenship.

The Liberal Democrats say the 41-year-old, who was born in Acton, London, to Syrian parents, should stop defending her husband's "barbaric acts" or lose her citizenship.

Foreign affairs spokesman Tom Brake has written to Home Secretary Amber Rudd urging her to give Assad an ultimatum.

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He wrote: "The First Lady of Syria has acted, not as a private citizen, but as a spokesperson for the Syrian presidency.

"This is a barbarous regime, yet Asma al-Assad has continued to use her international profile to defend it, even after the chemical weapons atrocity."

He added: "The government is entitled to deprive someone of their citizenship if it is conducive to the public good because that person has prejudiced the interests of the UK."

Writing in The Guardian, Nadhim Zahawi, Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon, said Assad is "no longer worthy" of citizenship after becoming one of "her husband's chief cheerleaders".

She has "used her platform on social media to defend her husband, deny his use of chemical weapons and attack the west, while portraying life in the war-ravaged country as blissfully normal", wrote Zahawi.

According to Sky News, Assad has around 500,000 followers on various social media accounts in her name.

Zahawi, who was born in Baghdad, added: "British citizenship is an honour to hold and should be highly prized. I know personally how precious citizenship of our great country is, as someone who was not British by birth."

As Assad is a Syrian national but a British citizen by birth, she can have her citizenship revoked. Stripping someone of their citizenship is controversial when it might leave them stateless, but dual nationals are considered to be able to fall back on their country.

Last June, the Bureau for Investigative Journalism found that between 2010 and 2015, Theresa May, then home secretary, revoked the citizenship of 33 individuals on the grounds they were involved in terrorism, or preparing to be involved in it.