The Government has been dealt a blow in its bid to force WhatsApp and other tech companies to hand over terror suspects' encrypted messages by EU proposals.

MEPs have tabled laws that would forbid countries in the EU from breaking the electronic protection that prevents security services from reading messages sent via WhatsApp. The plans would also impose obligations on tech companies that do not currently apply encryption to messages to do so.

The proposals would be a major setback to Theresa May’s election pledge that terrorists should have no “safe space” to conspire online, and threatens existing security legislation that requires companies to remove encryption where possible.

Smartphone apps including WhatsApp and Telegram electronically seal messages using end-to-end encryption, meaning that governments and even the companies themselves cannot read them.