Conservative MP Robert Halfon has called on Defence Secretary Philip Hammond to release the files on the P o W camp in Auschwitz.

Mr Halfon has written to Mr Hammond requesting he release the service record of Israeli President Shimon Peres’s father Yitzhak Persky and other British servicemen held in the camp.

He wrote: “I am sure that it would mean a huge amount to Shimon Peres personally, and also to historians and other scholars who study this period, if the MoD would be able to release Persky's service record and any PoW file on him that it may hold”

Other senior British MPs, including Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy, have backed the JC’s campaign to release the files. The campaign has also been backed by President Peres.