Shamima Begum should never have been stripped of her British citizenship. She should be allowed to return forthwith to the land of her allegiance and birth. That is the fundamental moral truth of her case which the British government has failed to grasp, backed by a one-sided decision of the United Kingdom supreme court that she should not even be allowed back in Britain on a temporary basis to fight her case. The supreme court refused to consider whether the home secretary was right to say Shamima was a danger to national security. It criticised the court of appeal for doing so – and for finding that she was not.

A vulnerable and confused 15-year-old from Bethnal Green in London should have been protected by the British state – her ultimate guardian – not abandoned by it. She should not have been allowed to go to Syria to join the Islamic State terrorist group, where she was quickly married to a jihadi fighter and had three children, all of whom died in infancy. It is very arguable she was a victim of sexual abuse; indeed that she was trafficked for it.