Julian Assange's high profile backers, including socialite Jemima Khan, are understood to have lost the £200,000 they posted for his bail as he remains holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy.

The Wikileaks founder breached the conditions by seeking political asylum before he was due to be extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault charges.

A raft of high-profile figures including socialite Jemima Khan, journalist John Pilger, film director Ken Loach and publisher Felix Dennis have all confirmed they raised the cash as security to help free him which a judge ordered be forfeited at an earlier hearing.

Nine high profile backers, including two members of the British aristocracy, a Nobel Prize winner and an academic, were today told at Westminster Magistrates Court they have a month to show why the £140,000 they promised between them if he refused to surrender to the authorities should also not be lost.

Ms Khan and the other celebrities who have confirmed they backed him financially are understood to have already handed over the cash as a security, meaning it was deposited with the court and they were not named on official documents as his supporters.

The remaining nine all promised money as sureties when he was bailed in December 2010 meaning they would only have to hand over the money if he failed to surrender.