Bermuda row over Guantanamo inmates

An urgent security assessment is now under way after Bermuda accepted the Uighurs without consulting the Foreign Office - which retains authority over foreign and security issues.

"We have underlined to the Bermuda government that it should have consulted the UK on whether this falls within their competence or is a security issue for which the Bermuda government does not have delegated responsibility," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

"We have made clear to the Bermuda government the need for a security assessment which we are now helping them to carry out," he added, saying that the four did not have the correct documentation so could not travel elsewhere at present.

The deal to take the four, who the US government ruled were not enemy combatants, was agreed by Bermuda premier Ewart Brown as US President Barack Obama bids to meet a pledge to close the controversial camp.

But shadow foreign secretary William Hague demanded an explanation from Mr Miliband and said the Government appears to have "lost grip of running the country".

"It is astonishing that an agreement of such significance between the US and Bermuda, involving the resettlement of four former terrorist suspects to a British overseas territory, could have taken place without a ripple reaching Whitehall," he said.

"The UK is responsible for Bermuda's external relations, defence and security and for appointing its governor. Yet the FCO appears to have had no idea that these discussions were taking place.

"This can only confirm the perception that the Labour Government has been so busy with its own internal turmoil that it has lost grip of running the country.

"Even before this blunder there were serious questions about whether the Government has paid sufficient attention to the UK overseas territories. Now these questions have reached a whole new level, demanding a response from the Foreign Secretary."