The Home Secretary warned Labour backbenchers yesterday that they risked a public backlash if they opposed plans to extend powers to detain terror suspects without charge.

Jacqui Smith insisted that the police wanted and needed powers to hold suspects for up to 42 days before they were charged or released, as they dealt with more complex terrorism inquiries. She said that voters would blame MPs if her plans were blocked but police had later to release terror suspects through lack of powers.

“We could all sit on our hands here and say this is terribly difficult, we don’t think we should do anything about it,” Ms Smith told the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One. “If we were then faced with the circumstance where we had to release a terrorist suspect because we couldn’t carry out the investigation long enough, people would quite rightly turn round and say: ‘You had the opportunity to put in place a reserve power that could have been used if those circumstances arose and you didn’t do it.’ ”

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