[Denver]

A TAXPAYER-funded pot of cash has been set aside to help returning jihadis such as Jack Letts and Shamima Begum.

The central fund, which could run into millions, will help cash-strapped councils pay for the housing and upkeep of hundreds of British nationals who joined IS.

he cash will also be spent on “de-radicalising” children returning from Syria.

Leaked government documents warn local authorities that many children will have had military training and be “committed to terrorism.”

Tory MP Robert Halfon, who chairs the Commons Education Committee, said: “It’s hard to believe that when you have huge pressure on school and college funding, vital resources are being given over to jihadis. What planet are we living on?”

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former Government counter terrorism adviser, said: “The fact that this is public money is disgraceful. We are talking about people involved in activity most of us could not imagine, such as mass rape, murder and torture.

“They should not be allowed to return here, they are terrorists.”

Up to 400 adults and children have already arrived back from Syria and numbers will grow. Begum, 19, who fled her home in East London to join IS, wants to return with her new baby and is appealing Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to strip her of British citizenship.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/849545...xpayers-money/