Gordon Brown decided, within days of The Times highlighting the plight of interpreters working for the British in Iraq, that the Government would reverse its policy and help any local staff at risk of persescution.

But acting on this decision has taken two months of political and legal wrangling, because Whitehall wants to avoid turning an act of compassion into a precedent that could open the floodgates to other asylum-seekers.

Initially Downing Street, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence all agreed that Iraqi interpreters and other employees at risk should be granted asylum and resettled in Britain. But the Home Office gave warning that it would be potentially disastrous to rewrite existing laws on immigration and asylum for one small group of people, while ignoring thousands of asylum-seekers with equally strong claims.

If Iraqi interpreters are granted the right to come to Britain, then their colleagues in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, the Balkans and other hotspots where British forces are based could make a valid legal challenge for the same rights.

The wording used by the Prime Minister, when he makes his statement on Iraq in the Commons on Monday, will be carefully scrutinised.

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