CNN has cited sources close to the WikiLeaks founder who have described his current situation is "unusually bad”, adding he could leave the embassy "any day now”, either as a result of being forced out or as a result of being so made to feel so restricted he felt compelled to leave as his own accord.

A tweet by the Australian-born campaigner’s lawyers on May 19 claimed his time in the embassy amounts to having been detained without charge for 2,720 days – 53 of those without internet access — and that there is "not a shred of evidence that Assange has done anything but publish material just as the establishment media do every day”.

His lawyer For the last eight years, the UK has refused to either confirm or deny that they have received an extradition request from the US. told CNN: "The concern from day one until the present is that if Julian Assange walks out of the Embassy, he will be extradited to face what the executive director of the ACLU described as an 'unprecedented and unconstitutional' prosecution under the US Espionage Act.”