Amnesty International vowed yesterday to take its fight against British spooks to Europe’s court of human rights after their blanket surveillance techniques were deemed lawful.

Human rights groups Amnesty, Liberty and Privacy International brought a joint legal challenge against GCHQ following the revelations of US whistleblower Edward Snowden about mass electronic surveillance programmes Prism and Tempora.

They argued that GCHQ’s methods breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to privacy, as well as Article 10, which protects freedom of expression.