Britain cannot automatically deport Abu Hamza’s daughter-in-law despite her criminality because of her son’s EU citizenship, the European Court of Justice [ECJ] has said in a judgment.

The comments are a blow to the Home Office which argued that the government should always be able to order people to leave the country in such circumstances.

Eurosceptics who highlighted the case during the referendum to show how the EU restricts Britain’s legal system are likely to say the decision backs up their case for leaving.

However the ECJ also gave ground, saying that UK courts could order the deportation, providing the woman in question is proved to pose a “genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat”.