Tarique Ghaffur, an Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard at the the 7/7 bombings, has called for the internment of radical extremists.

Mr Ghaffur, an Asian Mancunian who was the security coordinator for the 2012 Olympics, said Britain is facing an unprecedented threat.

“About 3,000 extremists are subjects of interest to MI5 and police, and about 500 plots are being monitored,” he warned in an article in the Mail on Sunday.

With an additional 400 jihadis having returned from Syria, he said the numbers were far too great for them to be monitored by the police and security services.