Unfortunately, tag_cloud isn't written to accept URL parameters in the URL given to it, it just tries to append ?tags=<tag name> to whatever string it's given.
The easiest way around this would be to make a copy of the tag_cloud function (it's in application/helpers/TagFunctions.php), put that copy in your theme's custom.php file, give it a unique name like custom_tag_cloud, and change the bit of code that creates the link to use an ampersand instead of a question mark.
if ($link) {
$html .= '<a href="' . html_escape($link . '&tags=' . urlencode($tag['name'])) . '">';
}
Then, your call would look like
<?php echo custom_tag_cloud($tags, uri('items/browse?sort_field=Item Type Metadata,datesort')); ?>