Families who survived the tidal wave accused officials of a catalogue of errors - among them being slow to evacuate Britons and repeatedly failing to answer pleas for assistance - raising questions over the service to UK citizens abroad.
The Foreign Office said it had 'apologised unreservedly' to one survivor, Michael Holland, son-in-law of the film director Lord Attenborough, whose wife, mother and daughter died in the Boxing Day disaster last year.
It has also admitted failing to give proper help to Kate Rage, a widowed British mother. She was turned away when she asked officials for help, because her husband was Swedish and the three children had Swedish passports.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, faces a parliamentary grilling next month over the care given to survivors and the future of consular services, supposedly the first port of call for Britons in trouble abroad.
Politicians said the scandal raised serious questions about the resilience of embassy services in the event of another disaster. British families caught up in Hurricane Katrina also say UK officials did nothing to help them in the key first hours of the New Orleans floods.
'The government said the Bali bombings had been a wake-up call for consular officials, yet the tsunami caught them napping. According to those caught up in Hurricane Katrina, they remain fast asleep,' said Liam Fox, the shadow foreign secretary.
The families interviewed by The Observer had all been staying in Khao Lak, which bore the brunt of deaths; the British consular team based themselves more than 100km away in the resort of Phuket.
