Obama agrees to talks on UK/US extradition

By politics.co.uk staff

Britain's concerns with its extradition treaty with the US have won an Anglo-American review of the issue.

David Cameron raised extradition in private talks with US president Barack Obama at the White House, after intense pressure from the Tory backbenches calling for a change.

Britain's position is hampered by Scott Baker's independent review, which last year declared that the UK's extradition arrangements with the US are balanced.

But it may be possible to persuade the US to allow more cases to be tried in British courts.

Campaigners have argued that because British judges cannot deny extradition requests - unlike their American counterparts - present arrangements are far from equal.

"I raised this issue with President Obama today and we had a good discussion," Mr Cameron said.

"We will be following this up with further talks between our teams.

"We have carried out an independent review of the treaty which found that it was balanced, but I recognise there are concerns about how it's implemented in practice and that's what our teams will look at."

There were no individual cases mentioned during Mr Cameron's talks with Mr Obama, it is understood. But both men will have been aware of the intense attention paid to a number of high-profile cases.

Christopher Tappin was extradited to Texas last month, where he is accused of supplying batteries usable in surface-to-air missiles for export to Iran.

Gary McKinnon, the Asperger's syndrome Pentagon hacker, continues his decade-long fight against extradition.

Earlier this week home secretary Theresa May approved the extradition of 23-year-old founder of the TVShack website, Richard O'Dwyer.

Ms May is currently considering her response to the Baker review.