UK LAWYERS ACTING ON BEHALF OF HAMAS ARE ‘TRYING TO PERVERT OUR OWN DOMESTIC LAWS’, SAYS PRITI PATEL

DAME Priti Patel has asked why the Home Office has not responded to a legal challenge which could end the status of Hamas as a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.

Speaking to GB News, the former Home Secretary said: “This is a stain on our democracy and on our laws when we all know that Hamas is backed by Iran. Hamas is a terrorist organisation and has been proscribed for very good reasons.

“They’re part of the murderous regime. They murder and torture and brutalise innocent civilians, and they are responsible for the atrocities that took place in Israel on the 7th October, two years ago. So this is simply unacceptable.

“What I think it’s quite extraordinary, though we’ve heard nothing from the British government, nothing from the department that I used to lead; a department where I basically took a very bold step forward to proscribe Hamas in all its forms, because they are a threat to the security of our country.

“They’re a threat to British citizens, and as we can see, they’re a threat to all nationals of peace-loving countries around the world and those countries that stand up for Western values, freedom and democracy and free speech.

“I think it is absolutely absurd that the so-called legal representatives representing this terrorist organisation are trying to pervert our own domestic laws to effectively unwind the proscription that I put in place that was backed by Parliament and backed by many of our defence and security allies.

“That is something that I expect this government should speak about and stand firm over.

“As Home Secretary, I put forward many, many laws, legislation on our statute books. I’m afraid not all governments have followed through on that legislation.”

She added: “They are abusing our laws. They’re effectively abusing the laws that they sign up to support through their legal practices.

“They’re using laws to basically poke their thumbs and noses at the British public and the British legislators and say that they’re supporting the most awful people that come to our country to do harm to our country.

“My party has very rightly said that we’re going to look at all of these options, and they’re all options on the table. I think first of all, let’s just remember what Hamas are doing right now. They still hold captive 59 hostages. They are brutalising them. They terrorise them. Their families are going through absolute pain and agony not knowing where their loved ones are.

“On the other hand, we’ve got these so-called lawyers basically now trying to circumnavigate and abuse our own laws and use the veil of the European Court of Human Rights and, dare I say, free speech.

“What do these people know about free speech when Hamas is an organisation that is terrorising a population in Gaza, has abused people and the hostages that they have, kidnapped. It’s just an insult to absolutely everyone.

“I think the British people across our country will be horrified by this, but my party is not in power. The question is, what is this Labour government going to do about this party because they voted against all these laws before.

“We’ve got to find the right ways in which we change our laws and just to say we would leave or appeal, that’s not a way forward, without actually having the ability to say, this is how we are going to do it.

“I took forward some very difficult and challenging legislation on asylum and on illegal migrants that by the way, everyone in the Labour Party, the very people that are now in government, they voted against.

“They’re all sitting there silently on this new challenge and on this new abuse to our domestic laws. On people that are undermining the security, the national security and the national interest of our country.”