GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun has insisted she has “no regrets” about leaking a confidential memo which led to her being charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act.

Five years after revealing the contents of the secret email, which detailed a secret US operation to spy on UN Security Council members in the run-up to the Iraq war, the former translator claimed she would do it all again.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Mrs Gun said: “It cost me my job. That is it, basically. I do not have any regrets about what I did. You can build your life up again afterwards.

“I guess my instinct at the time I saw the email was that war was on the agenda, and the only people I can think about were the millions of Iraqi citizens who had gone through 10 years of sanctions and were dirt poor, and then this enormous American military machine was just going to drop tonnes of bombs on them.

“I thought, well, how does that make any sense?”

Despite her refusal to back down, 34-year-old Mrs Gun admitted life has been hard since she hit the headlines.

The court case against her, for which she could have been sent to prison for two years, was eventually dropped eight months after she was first charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

But the Cheltenham resident said the drama surrounding the case had already changed her life forever.

She said: “I didn’t regret what I had done, but it was difficult for myself and my husband. We had only been married for six months.

“It was putting a pressure on us financially and emotionally. I was still anonymous and I felt like there was no one I could talk to.

“As soon as I went out of my office, I never saw it again. It was just like you’re out, that’s it. It is the end of that part of your life.”

In the wake of the court case, Mrs Gun was touted by admirers from across the globe as a figurehead for free speech. But the mother-of-one said she was only doing what she believed to be right.

She said: “Most people don’t want to stick their necks out. They are put in situations where they feel obligated to stick their necks out.

“That is the difference.”