Both houses of parliament on Tuesday night united in a rare and striking protest over the planned extradition to the US on Thursday of the “NatWest three”, piling pressure on the British and US governments to intervene.

In the House of Lords, Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers passed a resolution stating the US should be stripped from the list of countries to which the UK allows fast-track extradition until the US Senate ratifies a treaty signed by London and Washington in 2003.