Asia Bibi was freed and flew to Canada last week after eight years on death row

Days after Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, described governments as having been “asleep on the watch when it comes to persecution of Christians”, it has emerged that the UK turned a blind eye for years to the plight of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian woman kept on death row for more than eight years on trumped-up blasphemy charges.

Bibi, 54, was freed last week and flew to Canada with her husband for an emotional reunion with her two daughters, who have lived there since before Christmas.

Not only did Britain refuse to give Bibi and her family asylum but she was not even mentioned in telegrams between Whitehall and the High Commission in Islamabad from her arrest in 2009 until after her acquittal last October,