Calls for Assad's wife to be stripped of UK citizenship
There are calls for the wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad to be stripped of her British citizenship if she continues to publicly back her husband's brutal regime.
Asma Assad was born to Syrian parents in the UK and worked as an investment banker until she married Assad in 2000.
Social media accounts in Mrs Assad's name have some 500,000 followers and are used as pro-regime tools.
The Liberal Democrats foreign affairs spokesman Tom Brake said her vocal support for the man the Government has branded an "arch-terrorist" cannot be ignored.
It comes after the Assad regime was blamed for the recent chemical attack on his own people which killed at least 80.
Mr Brake, who is writing to Home Secretary Amber Rudd on the matter, said: "The first lady of Syria has acted, not as a private citizen, but as a spokesperson for the Syrian presidency.
"This is a barbarous regime, yet Asma Assad has continued to use her international profile to defend it, even after the chemical weapons atrocity.
"Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British government could say to Asma Assad, either stop using your position to defend barbaric acts, or be stripped of your citizenship."
He added if she 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".