Extremists stripped of their British citizenship will no longer be able to regain their status after a successful first appeal as a new law comes into force.
Until now, a person who the Government considers a threat to national security could be released from immigration detention or returned to the UK while further appeals to stop them are ongoing.
But a new law has closed a “legal loophole” so that citizenship cannot be regranted until all appeal proceedings have been completed.
Between 2018 and 2023, an average of 12 people a year were deprived of their citizenship on the grounds it was “conducive to the public good”.
This decision is made by the Home Secretary in serious cases where it is believed to be in the public interest, for reasons such as terrorism or serious organised crime.
Shamima Begum, who travelled at the age of 15 from Bethnal Green, east London, to territory held by the so-called Islamic State (IS) group a decade ago is the best-known example of the state’s use of the power.
She was “married off” to an IS fighter and was stripped of her British citizenship in February 2019.
Security minister Dan Jarvis said: “The Government takes national security extremely seriously and this new law sends a clear message: we will take no chances when it comes to protecting our country and our people.
“We have strengthened our ability to keep the most dangerous people out of Britain – those who threaten our safety, our way of life and the values we stand for. This law makes us all safer.”
The Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Act 2025, which received royal assent on Monday night, will also stop someone facing proceedings from renouncing any other nationalities, which could stop them being deported or having their British citizenship stripped due to becoming unlawfully stateless.
The new law will not change a person’s right to appeal and does not widen the reasons why a person could be deprived of their British status.
Maya Foa of the legal action charity Reprieve said it is “shocking” the Government is extending the “already broad and repressive legal power”.
She said: “The Act expands an extreme and unchecked power which could be misused by any future home secretary, however authoritarian their politics may be.”
