Former Minister Denies Torture Report Lobbying

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The former Home Office security minister Lord West - in an interview with Sky News - has categorically denied lobbying a US intelligence committee to edit its report on CIA torture.

It comes after Britain was dragged deeper into a row over US torture allegations after the Government admitted it asked for changes in a Senate report on the CIA's behaviour.

Details of 24 meetings since 2009 between UK politicians and diplomats and members of the committee were released following a Freedom of Information Act request.

Home Secretary Theresa May, Labour former minister Lord West and the UK's ambassador to Washington held meetings with the US politicians while they were working on their inquiry.

Lord West - the security minister in the last Labour Government - held talks with the Senate committee, but told Sky News that it was regarding a different matter - cyber security.

The Home Office declined to comment on Mrs May's meeting with the committee in July 2011.

In an abrupt U-turn by No 10, officials admitted changes had been asked for, 24 hours after denying Britain had asked for passages to be removed.

At Thursday's No 10 briefing, David Cameron's Deputy Spokeswoman confirmed British intelligence agencies discussed redactions with their US counterparts.

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"My understanding is no redactions were sought to remove any suggestion that there was UK involvement in any alleged torture or rendition," she said.

And then she admitted: "There was a conversation with the agencies and their US counterparts on the executive summary.

"Any redactions sought there were done on national security grounds in a way we would have done with any other report."

And yet on Wednesday, the day the CIA report was published, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman, when asked what redactions had been sought, repeatedly said: "None whatsoever, to my knowledge."

The admission comes after the head of the CIA John Brennan described the techniques used to extract information as "abhorrent".

The Senate report had detailed the US intelligence agency's "brutal" treatment of al Qaeda suspects in a network of secret prisons around the world.

On Wednesday night, former President George W Bush's Vice President Dick Cheney robustly defended the programme, which included forms of torture such as "waterboarding".

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who founded the All Party Group on Extraordinary Rendition, said a judge-led inquiry is now essential as public trust in the security services is at risk of being corroded.

"The Senate's report, and the further reports of redactions, greatly strengthen the case for a full and detailed inquiry into allegations of British facilitation of kidnap and torture, led by a judge," he said.

"The ISC has been handed back this task. Given the difficulties they faced in 2007, that is a huge challenge.

"Until that work is completed, until the scope and limits of our involvement are known, allegations – whether true or not - will continue to be made, corroding public confidence.

"We cannot know what, if any, of the material redacted might be of legitimate public concern. Until a full inquiry is completed, it will continue to be claimed that some of it is."

Reprieve spokesman Donald Campbell said: "We already know that the UK was complicit in the CIA's shameful rendition and torture programme.

"What we don't know is why there is no mention of that in the public version of the Senate's torture report."

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