The Bangladesh government has made it clear that it has no responsibility for Shamima Begum, the runaway extremist bride from London who has been stripped of her British nationality by the home secretary Sajid Javid.

Since the Netherlands, too, has said it will not accept Shamima despite her husband’s Dutch nationality, this appears to render the 19-year-old “stateless” — something that is not legal under UK law.

The declaration from the Bangladesh government has caused embarrassment for Javid, who has been accused of “burnishing” his leadership credentials by excluding Shamima — though it has to be said his move chimes with popular sentiment.

But whether he has acted in accordance with the law is another question.

The line from the home office was that Shamima would not be rendered stateless by losing her British nationality because she could claim Bangladeshi nationality through her parents.

But the Bangladesh government has moved swiftly to distance itself from Shamima.

“This is a matter of the British government,” Asaduzzaman Khan, Bangladesh’s interior minister, said. “Bangladesh has nothing to do with this.”

Javid defended his decision in an interview with ITV when he asserted: “I’m not aware of any home secretary in any party in any previous government that has taken a decision that would leave anyone stateless.

“I’m not going to talk about an individual, but I can be clear on the point that I would not take a decision and I believe none of my predecessors ever have taken a decision that at the point the decision is taken would leave that individual stateless.”

Shamima, who has given a series of interviews on British television cradling her new born, has said she does not have dual nationality nor has she ever visited Bangladesh.

In the Daily Mail, columnist Stephen Glover summed up: “The jihadi bride is a monster, but she’s our monster and must return home to face British justice.”

“Analysing Javid’s motives, he concluded: “I’m sorry to say that Mr Javid’s treatment of this wretched woman is probably not lawful and it is certainly not right….. She is as British as I am. Mr Javid can’t change that.

“Why can’t the Home Secretary grasp this? Because he wants to teach her, and others like her, a lesson. It’s also practically guaranteed that this ambitious man hopes to endear himself to members of Tory constituency associations, whose support he will need if he is going to become leader of his party. That’s how politicians behave.”

“My main objection is that by doing so he is introducing a dangerous concept of two classes of British citizenship, which could be disquieting to hundreds of thousands of people born in this country as the children of immigrants. In effect, he is saying that Begum is not entirely British because her mother was born in Bangladesh. But that must be wrong. She is entirely British because she was born here.”

This is also the point that has been made by a number of prominent Muslims, among them the TV actor and presenter and the central character in the comedy show, Citizen Khan.

In an interview, he said: “Of course, like everybody else I have no sympathy for her, I want her to suffer the harshest punishment, because what she did was an absolute disgrace.

“However, as a British Asian, what Sajid Javid is saying – because I’m British Asian, because of where my father was born 80 years ago, there is a small chance I might not be British.

“This country says that even when you do something wrong, we are going to protect you in a court of law.”

Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor who has successfully prosecuted Islamists for terrorism offences, wrote: “I’m British, born in Birmingham to a family that has worked for the British Army in 3 continents & I have worked tirelessly to keep my fellow citizens safe. Is my citizenship conditional? When the torchbearers & pitchforks come for me, who will protect me?”

Ken Clarke, a Conservative MP and former home secretary, told the BBC that Shamima was “obviously British” and went on: “To have every western country desperately trying to find obscure legal arguments to shove them into some other country and leave them in Syria will be an absolute disaster, a great boost for jihadism.”