Nick Clegg is to be summoned to parliament to give evidence on Facebook’s plans to encrypt its Messenger service, the Telegraph has learned.

The Science and Technology select committee voted Tuesday morning to hold an extraordinary session on the company’s plans, which the Home Secretary criticised last week as potentially creating a “digital blindspot” for terrorists and paedophiles to exploit.

Norman Lamb, the committee’s chair, said MPs wanted a Facebook executive of Sir Nick’s seniority to give evidence due to the “significance” of the decision to introduce encryption.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mr Lamb said: "We have decided to proceed with the evidence session on the encryption issue and will be asking Nick Clegg to give evidence along with a minister. This is obviously a highly significant decision by them (Facebook).

"It is important that there be parliamentary scrutiny, not just in this country but other countries are having this debate as well. We decided to call him as we want to understand how they (Facebook) will balance the competing interests between privacy, security and law enforcement."

Facebook is facing intense criticism over plans to implement end-to-end encryption in its Messenger app, which has more than one billion users worldwide.