What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Britain tolerated "inexcusable" treatment of detainees by the US during the 'war on terror', a damning official probe revealed today.

The UK paid or offered to pay for the ‘extraordinary rendition’ of at least three people who were likely to have been tortured following the 9/11 attacks.

And in almost 200 cases, the UK received intelligence obtained using detainees that were either mistreated, or where there was no proof they weren't harmed.

The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) declared it is possible UK spies "deliberately turned a blind eye" to keep "the flow of intelligence" coming.

The investigation by the ISC, published today, reveals the shocking scale of the UK’s cooperation with the US programme of torture.

The ISC, which oversees the UK's secret services, found evidence of UK officers being involved in mistreatment - though not carrying out torture themselves.

The probe found 13 incidents where UK personnel witnessed at first hand a detainee being mistreated by others.

(Image: Getty Images)

The mistreatment included making verbal threats in nine cases.

The ISC said: "In our view the UK tolerated actions, and took others, that we regard as inexcusable.

"That being said, we have found no ‘smoking gun’ to indicate that the Agencies deliberately overlooked reports of mistreatment and rendition by the US as a matter of institutional policy.

"The evidence instead suggests a difficult balancing act: the Agencies were the junior partner with limited influence, and concerned not to upset their US counterparts in case they lost access to intelligence from detainees that might be vital in preventing an attack on the UK."

The report condemned those in Head Office of the agencies, saying: "It is difficult to comprehend how those at the top of the office did not recognise the mistreatment by the US.”

(Image: REUTERS)

It also said that the agencies knew the US was mistreating detainees from an early point

The Chair of the ISC, Dominic Grieve, was asked whether ex-PM Tony Blair knew about the UK involvement in torture.

He said that until 2005 there was no written evidence ministers knew.

He said: “Certainly in its early stages the issues were not escalated to ministerial level.”

Asked why they hadn’t questioned then defence secretary and Home Secretaries Jack Straw and David Blunkett, he replied that the government had refused them access to a number of witnesses they wanted to interview - including intelligence officers.

(Image: PA)

The probe found 25 incidents where UK personnel were told by detainees that they had been mistreated by others.

And it found 128 incidents recorded where Agency officers were told by foreign liaison services about instances of mistreatment.

In some cases these were - correctly - investigated, but this was not consistent.

The report also found 232 cases where UK officials gave intelligence after they knew or suspected mistreatment of suspects.

And it found 198 cases where UK personnel received intelligence from liaison services which had been obtained from detainees who they knew had been mistreated or had no proof they hadn’t been harmed.

In two cases UK personnel were party to mistreatment administered by others: one has been investigated by the Metropolitan Police, but the other remains to be fully investigated and the report questioned whether the investigation should be reopened.

(Image: REUTERS)

The report made it clear that individual officers were not being blamed but it gave a damning assessment of the role of those in charge of the intelligence agencies and the ministers at the time. It said: “more could have been done at an Agency and Ministerial level to seek to influence US behaviour.

"More could also have been done to distance themselves from mistreatment of detainees”.

And the ISC slammed the government for refusing to allow it to interview the security officers of the time.

Labour has already joined human rights campaigners in calling for a judge-led inquiry after a leak revealed the Government ordered a "light-touch" review - and reports suggested the US tried to tone down the report.

The Reprieve group claimed that the powers of the ISC are too limited to give a full picture.

A Reprieve spokesman said: "The ISC is not independent of Government and the structure, remit and powers of the ISC are inadequate to allow it to get to the truth to UK involvement in torture and rendition.

(Image: PA)

"In order to get to the truth and maintain public confidence there must be an inquiry that meets the basic test of independence from Government and which has the powers and scope necessary to ensure all appropriate evidence is examined."

Labour’s shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti said: “This leak suggests pressure on the ISC from both No.10 and the Trump White House.

"When close allies lead each other away from human rights standards and add insult to injury by demanding long-term cover-ups, only a full blown judicial investigation will protect the robustness and reputation of our vital security agencies.”

She added after the report was published: “It is now clear from the published reports that the Intelligence and Security Committee was denied access to individuals, severely limiting its ability to give as comprehensive a resolution to this scandal as it would have liked.

"Its criticisms of ongoing inadequacies on guidance relating to torture and rendition also makes a judge-led inquiry - that the Government is so keen to avoid - inescapable.”

Corey Stoughton, Advocacy Director at Liberty, said: “As the Committee itself bemoans, the Government crippled this inquiry from the start, constraining its scope, withholding critical information, and creating obstacles to a full and complete reckoning on the UK’s complicity in torture.

"Their pages make for distressing reading, but we still haven’t got to the bottom of the UK’s involvement in the unforgivable mistreatment of people around the world.

"Ministers must finally instigate the promised independent judge-led inquiry to delve deeper into our country’s involvement in torture and rendition.”

Asked whether the government would be launching an inquiry, a Downing Street Spokeswoman said: “We are now going to review the conclusions and the recommendations and come back with a formal response later this year.”

Responding to allegations the government stopped the committee from quizzing certain individuals it needed to, the spokeswoman said: “In certain instances some of the officials they were looking to speak to were junior at the time of the event and it’s not usual practice for a parliamentary committee to take evidence from junior officials.

"As the ISC said themselves they took 50 hours of evidence, reviewed 40,000 original documents and devoted over 30,000 staff hours to the inquiry they had access to government material provided to the Gibson inquiry this is an extensive report and the government fully and willingly cooperated with it."