SECURITY chiefs and ministers were divided over who should be first to be deported in the promised purge of Islamic extremists.

Charles Clarke wanted to start with the “preachers of hate” while MI5 argued that the priority should be the removal of militants who it alleges are linked to terror cells.

It is thought that the seven Algerians rounded up in raids yesterday include some of the men acquitted this year of involvement in a plot to poison Londoners with ricin.

They were originally arrested alongside an illegal Algerian immigrant, Kamel Bourgass, who was jailed for life for murdering Detective Constable Stephen Oake in 2003.

One of the properties raided by armed police and immigration officials was in Whalley Range, Manchester. The occupant surrendered without a fight and was taken to Full Sutton top-security prison near York. The other six were picked up in synchronised raids across London and were last night at Long Lartin in Evesham, Worcestershire.

All seven men are understood to have been kept under surveillance for the past fortnight until Mr Clarke gave the go-ahead for the arrests after studying “detailed submissions” from police and the security services.

The Home Secretary said he was using his existing powers to deport those whose presence “is not conducive to the public good for reasons of national security”. Officials refused to detail the security threat posed by the seven, or to reveal their names.

Mr Clarke said: “As, unfortunately, we saw in July, there are individuals who are going about the course of trying to threaten the civil liberties of this country by terrorist or potential terrorist attacks. To the extent we know about those . . . it’s our job to defend ourselves against that, as vigorously as we possibly can.”

Some of the seven seized yesterday are known to have recently lodged new asylum claims, saying that they faced being killed or tortured if they were sent back to Algeria because they were branded as terrorists during their Old Bailey trial before a jury acquitted them in April.

The seven have the right to challenge deportation at the Special Immigration Appeal Commission which this year granted asylum to one Algerian against whom all charges were dropped at an early stage of the investigation. Bourgass was the only suspect found guilty of conspiring to cause a public nuisance through the use of poisons at the end of one of Britain’s costliest investigations.

This week, Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, wrote in his memoirs serialised in The Times, of the “dismay and amazement” at Scotland Yard at the verdict.

Some officials in the Home Office are concerned about trying to deport men who were acquitted after a lengthy trial.One senior source said: “We don’t want it to look like a case of ‘If we can’t secure a criminal conviction then we’ll get you by kicking you out’.”

Amnesty International said: “Detainees must be allowed to properly challenge the grounds for their deportation, including the evidence on which the Home Secretary has made his decision to deport them. This is particularly important because of the risk that the UK authorities may rely on secret evidence.” Amnesty was joined by other human rights groups in objecting to the men being sent to Algeria, which they claim has an appalling record of torturing prisoners.

Diplomats admitted last night that they are still no nearer to a deal with Algeria on deportation, despite Tony Blair suggesting on August 5 that a memorandum of understanding that detainees would not be mistreated was close.

Britain had hoped to secure agreements with ten governments by now but has signed a deal only with Jordan. There are now 16 men in custody facing expulsion to Algiers.

Nine were seized last month as a threat to security along with Abu Qatada, the Jordanian-born radical cleric named by Spanish investigators as “al-Qaeda’s spiritual ambassador in Europe”.

Officials said that yesterday’s arrests were only the start. A number of radical clerics expect to be picked up next week. Both Italy and France have thrown out clerics since the London attacks and Germany and Spain have expelled more than 20 militant imams.

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