Police and immigration officials are questioning Charles Clarke’s plans to expel the most dangerous preachers of hate after the latest series of terror arrests yesterday.

Five more suspected Islamic extremists were picked up in dawn raids but, yet again, those held do not include the most notorious radicals whom the Home Secretary pledged would be top priority for expulsion.

The five, seized in Wales, the West Midlands and London, join seventeen other alleged militants at top-security jails with no sign that any face imminent deportation as promised. All have been detained on the ground of national security rather than new criteria of unacceptable behaviour.

The names of high-profile foreign clerics and prominent dissidents are reported to have been at the top of a list of deportees drawn up by immigration and security staff but their arrest warrants are understood to have been cancelled.

A senior immigration source said: “We have gone for a lot of small fry when figures who are accused of stirring up hatred and recruiting young men to join jihad are still walking the streets and mocking us.”

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