Blair sidestepped the issue but Brown acted decisively

As recently as April, Tony Blair was refusing to come to the aid of former British residents locked up in Guantanamo Bay. He told MPs: "It's very important we do not take on responsibility for people who are not British citizens in those circumstances."

Years of campaigns by supporters of the detainees, who accused the Government of ignoring its moral duty to intervene on their behalf, came to nothing. But the arrival of Gordon Brown in Downing Street and growing signs that Washington wants to close the camp have led to the change of policy and the release of the five men appears to be imminent. Last night Lord Goldsmith, who was attorney general in the Blair government, admitted that "getting consensus within government was not easy" but claimed that the UK had been "moving towards it".

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"But I am very pleased that Gordon Brown's government has reached a decision. It is the right one," he added, claiming to have always opposed the camp as "wrong in principle and practice". " Guantanamo had become a symbol of injustice; it had become a rallying call for terrorism... I think it has dragged the good name of the United States, the good reputation for liberty and justice, through the dirt instead of upholding those traditions," he said.

In office however, the Blair government maintained it could not lobby for non-British nationals because of the US insistence that it would not negotiate with third countries over the fate of detainees.

The US position softened, however, last year when it allowed five Chinese Muslims to be transferred from Guantanamo to Albania.

Pressure is growing on President George Bush to close the camp and the White House is known to be discussing how that could be achieved. The number of detainees has been more than halved from a peak of 775 to the current total of about 375.

The campaign group Reprieve, which has represented all five men, said the change of prime minister was a key factor. Clive Stafford Smith, its legal director, said: "This is a sign of the Brown administration taking a new and better attitude to it. I think they really do want to be tougher on the causes of terrorism as well as terrorism."

It appears the Government has promised the Americans that the activities of the five men, who all deny any involvement with terrorism, will be scrutinised by British security services. That should be enough to smooth their return to the United Kingdom by the end of the year.

But civil liberties organisations say there could be a further three former UK residents held in Guantanamo Bay. The Foreign Office says it is satisfied that there are no other detainees who qualify for the Government's help.