Human rights groups accused a parliamentary committee of a whitewash yesterday after it failed to take the government to task over double standards in its dealings with the Saudi and Bahraini regimes.

In a report yesterday the foreign affairs committee conceded that the government has an apparent credibility problem over the way it balances human rights issues with its business and political dealings in Saudi Arabia.

And charges of hypocrisy over its dealings with the regime could no longer be ignored, it said.