The fallout continued yesterday after the revelation that MI5 and GCHQ routinely spied on privileged lawyer-client conversations.

On Thursday the government was forced to release secret documents showing it advised staff at the agencies that they “may in principle target the communications of lawyers.”

The documents were disclosed as part of case brought to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal by the families of two Libyan opponents of Colonel Gaddafi — Abdel-Hakim Belhadj and Sami al-Saadi, who were subjected to rendition, along with their families, and torture by the CIA with the alleged complicity of Britain in 2004.