US 'is slapping oldest ally in the face over Guantanamo Briton': MPs say Washington is 'indifferent' over Shaker Aamer's plight

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America's continued detention of Shaker Aamer is a ‘slap in the face to its oldest ally’, says former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell.

He said the lack of progress in releasing the British resident after 13 years in Guantanamo Bay was ‘depressing’.

Mr Mitchell travelled to Washington last week with senior Tory MP David Davis, Labour justice spokesman Andrew Slaughter and Labour backbencher Jeremy Corbyn to urge the White House to free the father of five.

Former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell (left) said the treatment of Mr Aamer (right) was a 'slap in the face from [Britain's] oldest ally and staunchest friend'. The father-of-five is said to be very unwell

Mr Aamer, who has never stood trial or been charged, was cleared for release by presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama, but has yet to return to his wife and children in London.

The 47-year-old, who is said to be very ill, has never met his 13-year-old son.

Mr Mitchell said: ‘We have been unable to shake off the depressing notion that the US administration is indifferent to the request of the British Government … for the reasonable release of one of our residents, a request made specifically by the Prime Minister. We’ve shed blood and treasure in two controversial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

‘And for our Prime Minister and us to be treated this way by America is insulting to their oldest ally. It is doing increasing damage to the Anglo-American relationship and is a thorn in the side of our friendship. Is it not a slap in the face from our oldest ally and staunchest friend?’

It was an ‘insult’ to suggest Britain did not have the legal structures, security and intelligence skills to address any concerns over transferring Mr Aamer to the UK, Mr Mitchell said.

Detainees sit in a holding area watched by military police at Camp X-Ray inside Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in an image released in 2002. Briton Shaker Aamer has been in the camp for 13 years

He added that President Obama could sort the matter immediately by signing a piece of paper that would give 30 days’ notice of Mr Aamer’s release.

David Cameron was told in January by the President that Mr Aamer’s case would be prioritised. In April, US officials said he would be transferred within weeks. But Mr Mitchell said progress had been stymied.

‘The meetings we had with senators were very encouraging indeed – but the meetings with the State Department envoy for Guantanamo, Charles Trumbull, and his Defence Department counterpart, Paul Lewis, left us feeling shortchanged,’ he said.

MPs met former Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, Democrat senator Pat Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and senators Dianne Feinstein, Joe Manchin and Dick Durbin.

Mr Mitchell said all four MPs on the trip had large Muslim communities in their constituencies, adding: ‘We disagree with just about everything else except that we urgently require the release of Shaker Aamer.

US agents insist Shaker Aamer helped finance Al Qaeda and was an aide to Osama Bin Laden, a claim he vehemently denied. He was tortured in a secret 'black site' prison before being taken to Guantanamo, pictured

‘The scourge of terrorism will never be defeated unless we can win the hearts and minds of the people who hear the terrorist message. Respect for the rule of law and the beating heart of justice is essential in that battle.’

The ex-minister said Washington was rightly concerned not to do anything that could jeopardise US citizens’ safety. But he added that while Mr Aamer ‘is not a saint’, the Government would ‘not press this case with such determination if they believed that to do so would put either an ally or our own citizens at risk’.

Fifteen other UK detainees have been returned to Britain but none had been involved in a security threat. The US has returned other prisoners to Kazakhstan and Uruguay – ‘neither of which has a security or care structure the equivalent of ours’.

The Afghan Northern Alliance handed Mr Aamer to the US military for $5,000 (£3,200). He was tortured at a secret ‘black site’ prison and arrived at Guantanamo in 2002. US agents insisted he financed Al Qaeda and was an aide of Osama Bin Laden – a claim he vehemently denied.

American officials want him sent to Saudi Arabia, where he was born. Mr Aamer’s lawyers say the intention is to silence his claims he witnessed abuse in the presence of a British official.

He was a US Army translator in the first Gulf War, then moved to London where he married Zin Siddique, a British Muslim.