EDEN MP Rory Stewart said British Isil fighters should be killed in Syria rather than be allowed to come back to this country.

Mr Stewart, an International Development minister, insisted converts who left the UK to fight for the so-called Islamic State group were guilty of horrific acts and should be eliminated "in almost every case".

The MP for Penrith and The Border spoke out just days after Max Hill QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said young people who travelled to Syria after being "brainwashed" should be allowed home to rejoin society.

Mr Stewart, interviewed during Radio 5 Live's John Pienaar show, on Sunday, said: "These are people who have essentially moved away from any kind of allegiance towards the British Government.

"They are absolutely dedicated, as members of the Islamic State, towards the creation of a caliphate, they believe in an extremely hateful doctrine which involves kill themselves, killing others and trying to use violence and brutality to create an eighth-century, or seventh-century, state.

"So I'm afraid we have to be serious about the fact that these people are a serious danger to us, and unfortunately the only way of dealing with them will be, in almost every case, to kill them."