Karl Watkin, the entrepreneur, on Thursday played a near lone hand among prominent business people in defending the three former NatWest bankers who have pleaded guilty to fraud in the US.

Mr Watkin, who organised a London street protest against the men’s extradition last year, said the plea agreement reflected bullying by the US authorities that had given the world Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib prison, the Iraq war and the mortgage lending crisis.