Shamima Begum, the east London schoolgirl who fled her home in 2015 to join the so-called Islamic State terror group in Syria, has asked the British people for forgiveness.

The 22-year-old was speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain in a live interview when this came out.

She said: “I know it’s very hard for the British people to try and forgive me because they have lived in fear of Isis and lost loved ones because of Isis, but I also have lived in fear of Isis and I also lost loved ones because of Isis, so I can sympathise with them in that way.

Begum had her British citizenship revoked by the Home Office on national security grounds in February 2019.

Speaking from Syria and wearing a Nike baseball cap and grey vest, Begum said she came to Syria expecting simply to get married, have children and “live a pure, Islamic life”.

“The reason I came to Syria was not for violent reasons.”

She added: “At the time I did not know it (so-called Islamic State) was a death cult, I thought it was an Islamic community I was joining.

“I was being fed a lot of information on the internet by people.”

She said she thought she was “groomed and taken advantage of and manipulated into” travelling to Syria.

Begum also denied being directly involved in terrorist preparations.

She told Good Morning Britain: “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.”

“I would rather die than go back to IS," she added.

Begum said she regretted her actions and apologised for the comments she previously made about the Manchester Arena bombing.

She said: “I do not believe that one evil justifies another evil. I don’t think that women and children should be killed for other people’s motives and for other people’s agendas.”

Begum said she did not know that women and children were hurt in Manchester.

“I did not know about the Manchester bombing when I was asked. I did not know that people were killed, I did not know that women and children were hurt because of it.”