Shamima Begum joined ISIS in 2015 (Image: Getty)
Nigel Farage has said the UK should consider allowing Shamima Begum to return after she joined ISIS back in 2015.
Speaking to ITV, the Reform UK leader said: “I’ve never wanted to. I’ve instinctively never wanted to. But I’m now thoughtful, I’m thoughtful. I don’t classify her as an ISIS, an all out ISIS killer.
“So she’s sort of less… She is a lesser part of the equation.”
The comments came after US President-elect Donald Trump’s terror chief choice, Seb Gorka, said this week that ISIS members should be allowed to return to the US.
Mr Farage continued: “It’s very difficult for us to think we should take back people, Shamima Begum and others, and instinctively, instinctively, it’s not something I want to do.
Begum was just 15 when she left the UK to join ISIS (Image: Getty)
“Gorka argues that if we and other European countries don’t take back these people and put them in prison here, they will get out of prison under the new Syrian regime, leading to a problem that in the end we may all have to fight.”
In December, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s brutal rule came to an end when Islamist rebel groups launched a surprise offensive, sweeping through major cities before taking the capital Damascus.
Begum has been detained at the al-Roj detention camp in Syria since 2015.
She had been an ISIS bride, joining at the age of just 15.
Lammy rejected calls to bring Begum back to the UK (Image: Getty)
She gave birth to three children. None survived.
Her lawyers argue that she was a victim of grooming and exploitation, thrust into the role of a divisive symbol in a complex legal and diplomatic issue.
Begum has attempted to return to the UK and has tried to overturn the then-Home Secretary’s decision to revoke her citizenship in 2019.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy rejected calls from Trump’s team to repatriate Begum.
He said: “Shamima Begum will not be coming back to the UK. It’s gone right through the courts. She’s not a UK national,” he told ITV. “We will act in our security interests. And many of those in those camps are dangerous, are radicals.”
