Theresa May insists she did not seek redactions to American report

Mrs May did concede that officials had requested that no evidence was included in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report that would damage national security.

But she told the Home Affairs Select Committee last night she could not speak for previous Governments.

Her appearance before the Committee came as the Government faces mounting cross-party calls for a new judicial inquiry into Britain’s possible role in the shocking treatment of detainees in the years after the September 11 attacks.

Committee chair Keith Vaz said he would be asking US Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the American committee that published the CIA torture report, and a Republican, to give evidence next year.

The Home Secretary said she had not read the full 6,000-page report and had only seen the 500-page summary made publicly available.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chair of the intelligence and security committee (ISC), yesterday insisted he and his colleagues would look into questions of UK complicity in torture ‘’without fear or favour’’ and call witnesses - possibly including ex-prime minister Tony Blair.

The Home Secretary said British security and intelligence agencies staff would not want to be “tainted” by suggestions that they have been involved in torture.