Assad's wife Asma could lose UK citizenship

Bashar and Asma al-Assad. British MPs accuse the first lady of helping to prop up her husband's regime in Syria. Photo / Instagram

British MPs will formally demand today that Asma al-Assad be stripped of her UK citizenship over accusations that she helps spread propaganda for her husband, the Syrian President.

Asma al-Assad, a former investment banker who married Bashar al-Assad in 2000, has more than 500,000 followers on her Instagram, Facebook and Telegram accounts which she uses to praise the Syrian regime's "martyrs" and attack the West.

Last weekend her Instagram account was used to respond to US President Donald Trump's air strikes against a Syrian airbase, in response to a chemical weapons attack by the regime.

The post read: "The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic affirms that what America has done is an irresponsible act that only reflects a short-sightedness, a narrow horizon, a political and military blindness to reality and a naive pursuit of a frenzied false propaganda campaign".

Liberal Democrat MPs will tonight NZT send an official letter to the Home Office, calling for Asma al-Assad's citizenship to be revoked. They are also calling for a debate in the House of Commons next week.

The letter reads: "If Asma continues defending the Assad regime's murderous actions, the onus will be on the UK Government to deprive her of her citizenship or demonstrate that her actions are not seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom."

Asma al-Assad was born in London to Syrian parents and educated at Queen's College, a private girls school, and Kings College London, where she gained a degree in computer science in 1996.

Speaking in a television interview in October 2016, the 41-year-old mother-of-three said she used her position as first lady to organise assistance for displaced people, wounded Syrian Army soldiers, and the families of "martyrs" who have died in the war.

She is understood to be a British-Syrian dual national and the Home Secretary has the power to remove her UK citizenship if she decides that would be "conducive to the public good".

Asma al-Assad on Istagram.

Tom Brake, the Lib Dem's foreign affairs spokesman, said: "Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British Government could say to Asma al-Assad, 'Either stop using your position to defend barbaric acts or be stripped of your citizenship'."

Nadhim Zahawi, a Conservative MP, added: "The time has come where we go after [President] Assad in every which way, including people like Mrs Assad, who is very much part of the propaganda machine that is committing war crimes."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We cannot discuss individual cases but the Home Secretary can deprive individuals of their citizenship where it is conducive to the public good to do so."