However, Begum said on Wednesday: “I am willing to go to court and face the people who made these claims and refute these claims, because I know I did nothing in IS but be a mother and a wife.
“These claims are being made to make me look worse because the Government do not have anything on me. There is no evidence because nothing ever happened.”
Begum said she was a victim of grooming by extremists, would now “rather die” than rejoin IS, and admitted she was wrong to say that the Manchester Arena attack was “justified” because of airstrikes that have killed civilians in Syria.
She said: “I know it is very hard for [the public] to forgive me. But I say from the bottom of my heart that I am so sorry if I ever offended anyone by coming here, if I ever offended anyone by the things I said.”
On Wednesday, the Government came under backbench pressure to follow the example of the US and other EU nations and repatriate IS brides and their families potentially to prosecute them.
Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, said: “Britain needs to face up to its responsibilities as one of the permanent five members of the UN and repatriate these people as the US government has urged.
“Some of these women were trafficked under age, effectively for sex. It is self-evidently a form of modern slavery outlawed by Parliament.”
