Shamima Begum: Jeremy Hunt says bringing British baby back would have been 'too dangerous' despite multiple visits by journalists

Foreign secretary makes comments despite multiple journalists visiting camp where he died

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said it would have been too dangerous to send British officials to rescue Shamima Begum’s newborn baby son from Syria.

The child died in a refugee camp after his mother, who joined Isis in 2015, was stripped of UK citizenship despite saying she wanted to return home so her child could live.

Ms Begum, 19, is currently living in a refugee camp in northern Syria, having fled Isis territory.

Her son was a UK citizen but Mr Hunt – who gave the first reaction by a senior government figure since it emerged Ms Begum’s son had died – said any rescuers’ lives would have been at risk in the camp.

Mr Hunt told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that Ms Begum “chose to leave a free country to join a terrorist organisation and we have to think about the safety of British officials that I would send into that war zone as a representative of the government”.

Questioned over why officials could not have gone to rescue the child from a camp where the press had gone to interview Ms Begum and others, the Conservative politician said journalists had “some protection”.

He added: “Sending a British government official into a war zone in a situation where you are getting advice that those officials’ lives may be put at risk is a very different matter.”

Ms Begum had pleaded to return to Britain with her boy after already losing two children, but was stripped of her citizenship on the orders of the home secretary, Sajid Javid.

He has faced growing criticism over the move after her three-week-old son died, with his Labour counterpart Diane Abbott calling the death a “stain on the conscience of this government”.

“Shamima knew, when she made the decision to join Daesh, she was going into a country where there was no embassy,” Mr Hunt said earlier in the interview. “There was no consular assistance. And I’m afraid those decisions, awful though it is, do have consequences.”

Mr Hunt has insisted officials are working on how to rescue British children born to Islamic State runaways after the death of Ms Begum’s baby.

The foreign secretary’s defence came on Sunday after it was reported that two further women married into the terror group have been stripped of their UK citizenship while being held in detention camps with their children.

Mr Hunt said he is working with international development secretary Penny Mordaunt on how children can be safely returned.

“We have been looking at how we can get in touch with these children, how we can find a way to get them out. Sadly in this case, as we know, it wasn’t possible,” he added.

How to treat innocent British children who are stuck in the squalor of Syrian detention camps will be an increasing issue.

The Sunday Times reported that two women, with five boys under the age of eight between them, had their UK nationality stripped after marrying into a terror cell linked to the murder of western hostages.

Quoting legal sources, the paper named the women as Reema Iqbal, 30, and her sister Zara, 28, whose parents are originally from Pakistan.

The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases.

“Any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly,” a spokesperson added.