Julian Assange has cost Britain £6m as policing bill to guard Ecuadorian embassy where WikiLeaks fugitive is hiding soars

Guarding London building has cost £5.9m, including £1m overtime bill

Met has stationed officers outside embassy since he entered in June 2012

Police would arrest him if he left and then have him sent to Sweden for trial

He lives in small room in the embassy containing a bed and a treadmill



Shocking: Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Equador embassy in Knightsbridge in 2012 and police say guarding the building has now cost £6m

Guarding the Ecuadorian embassy in London where Julian Assange has claimed asylum has now cost taxpayers almost £6million, it was revealed today.



Metropolitan Police officers have been standing outside the Knightsbridge building since the WikiLeaks founder took refuge there in June 2012 - a vigil costing £11,000 per day.



The 42-year-old is wanted in Sweden after allegedly sexually assaulting two women in Stockholm in 2010.

For almost two years he lived in the embassy because he fears he will be extradited to America after he enraged the White House by releasing thousands of its secrets in 2010.



At all times there are three Scotland Yard officers waiting outside the embassy to arrest him.

At least one stands on the steps and others will question visitors leaving in case it is Assange in disguise.



All this has cost £5.9million so far, including £1million in overtime costs.



Baroness Jenny Jones, deputy chair of the Police and Crime Committee at the London Assembly, condemned the huge cost as 'ludicrous.'

She said : 'It is absolute madness. I have been asking the Met questions about this because clearly at the moment the cost is falling on the London taxpayers as a net police cost.

'I have been asking if the Government is going to pay. The Met is apparently trying to claim back some of the money, but of course it is still the taxpayer who is paying for it.

'It is complete madness when we are struggling to keep police officers on the beat.'

Costly exercise: Police must stand guard outside the building in case the hacker leaves, but almost two years since he entered Assange has shown no sign of leaving

She said that perhaps the Metropolitan Police should just 'walk away' from the situation.

She said : 'I do understand the legal ramifications of the case, but the fact is this is a complete nonsense.

'He could stay there for years. It is a terrible thought, I guess.

'What he did with WikiLeaks was extremely valuable but at the same time evading justice just is not right and either somebody else has to pay - that is, the Swedish authorities - or we just have to back off and stop guarding the embassy. It is ludicrous.'

The hacker has endured a self-imposed imprisonment in a single room after being given diplomatic asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London’s Knightsbridge.



Assange is still unapologetic about his role in helping to disclose government secrets.

The embassy — strewn with red, yellow and blue Ecuadorian flags — takes up a single floor of an imposing block behind Harrods.



Initially, Assange slept on an inflatable mattress donated by embassy staff, who are described as having become ‘like family’ to him.



But when it became clear his stay was not going to be temporary, a small room was transformed into his living quarters and a bed installed.



Life inside: Since June 2012, when he took refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex charges, Assange has been living a stiflingly claustrophobic existence in a 15ft by 13ft room

He is thought to have stood in direct sunlight for only about 20 minutes during his incarceration, when he emerged on the balcony to address his supporters in August 2012.



He has a specially adapted lamp to mimic sunlight in his room — which measures just 15ft by 13ft.



Near a Victorian fireplace he has a treadmill donated by the Left-wing film-maker Ken Loach and in his first year at the embassy he notched up 744 miles on the running machine.