Allegations that the US government intervened to censor a report into rendition and torture by UK spies have been rejected by the senior group of MPs behind it.

Dominic Grieve, chair of the intelligence and security committee (ISC), dismissed claims there were any significant last-minute changes granted to the document.

The ISC is a group of nine MPs and peers who scrutinise the work of Britain's security services.

Mr Grieve was responding after a story in The Times said US officials were demanding changes into the report - due to be published on Thursday.

Image: Dominic Grieve accused the government of leaking his report to 'draw the sting'

The newspaper claimed it would call for "sweeping changes" to protocols governing how British spies operate in the field and increasing ministerial oversight over their activity.


Mr Grieve said he was speaking out "exceptionally" to dispel fears of censorship and stop the claims "distracting" from his report's key messages.

Only one word had been redacted from 300 pages "to meet a US security concern", the MP for Beaconsfield revealed.

He said: "On Thursday I will happily point you to where those asterisks are in the report and you can see for yourself that it is not a central issue, nor a controversial issue.

"The committee does not agree to redact material in its reports on grounds of embarrassment to anyone.

"So I can assure you that the US has not made wholesale redactions to the reports, as suggested."

Image: The ISC scrutinises Britain's security services, like MI5

Mr Grieve also attacked the government, accusing it of acting "unacceptably" by leaking the report to the media.

"It appears that that procedure has been abused in order to leak details of the reports, so as to draw the sting on Thursday," he said.

The Cabinet Office declined to comment.