Danny Dyer has waded into the Shamima Begum controversy – saying the teenager should be allowed back into the UK.
The EastEnders star said the runaway schoolgirl must have been “lost within her soul” to go to Syria.
The 41-year-old told Good Morning Britain that Begum, now 19, must have had “no guidance, clearly, because if you think about it … How has it got into her head that going to Syria at 15 years of age is the answer, when she lives in this country?”
Danny Dyer weighs in on the debate on whether Shamima Begum should be allowed back in the UK. pic.twitter.com/8grO2O93eE
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) February 18, 2019
“What is that about? So who’s there to guide her, talk to her?
“Why is she so lost within her soul that she thinks that’s the answer, to go to Syria?” he said.
And Dyer, who plays Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter in the BBC soap, said: “I don’t understand what’s gone on there and now she wants to come back.”
Asked whether the UK should allow back Begum, who has given birth to a baby boy, Dyer replied: “Yes, because I feel she needs a chance, maybe to explain what was going on and maybe we can understand a little bit more about how they got to her and how she felt it was the right move to jump on a plane and leave this country at 15 years of age.
“She is still a young girl – who was looking after her? Maybe we can learn from it.”
When the ITV show’s stand-in host, Richard Madeley, said Begum would not have gone to Syria without the internet, Dyer replied: “We’ve all got the internet, Rich. Are you thinking of going to Syria? Seriously.”