Britons want thousands of armed police deployed on the streets to protect against a terror attack.

A poll has found that 58 per cent believe officers should be routinely armed, a move which would radically change the face of British policing.

The BMG Research results, which exclude “don’t knows”, showed that 42 per cent were against ditching the long-held tradition of beat officers not carrying guns.

More worryingly, two thirds of the public voicing a view believe the police and security forces are not sufficiently ready to respond to a Paris-style attack in London or another part of the UK. This stark finding was almost double the 34 per cent who think they are.

“Across all ages, and the entire country, the vast majority of residents feel that officers are not suitably prepared for an attack similar to that seen in Paris,” said Michael Turner, research director at BMG Research.

“Consequently, the results also show strong support for officers to be routinely armed in a way that is perhaps most commonly seen by Britons in continental Europe.”

Those aged 25 to 44, a group more likely to have young families, are significantly more supportive of arming officers, the poll suggested.

Women seemed to harbour more doubts than men over whether the police, military and intelligence services are ready to counter a marauding terrorist attack here.

Following the Paris massacre in which at least 130 died, Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe increased the number of armed officers on patrol in London by a third.

He also signalled that this number could rise while stressing his “confidence” that the force could respond well to a multiple-site terror strike even though “it would be a great challenge”.

He believes London is a safe city and has warned against a “knee jerk towards a new type of policing where everyone is armed”.

Widespread arming of the police may be seen as a defeat in the battle to protect British values in the face of the threat from Islamic State and other terror groups.

But if more officers were armed, then those deployed first to incidents like the recent knife attack at Leytonstone Tube station could be carrying weapons.

Sir Bernard, though, defended the “fantastic” response by officers who used Tasers to resolve the situation in about 12 minutes.

Interactive picture: Discover the equipment carried by armed response officers

The Met’s strategy is to respond to alerts with well-trained officers for specific threats, who will arrive in numbers if necessary and be mobile to deal with a moving threat.

Just under a fifth of respondents to the question about arming the police replied “don’t know”, so if they are included in the results the breakdown is 47 per cent in favour of doing so and 34 per cent against.

On being ready to deal with a Paris-style attack, 23 per cent said “don’t know”, with 51 per cent believing the police and security forces are not and 26 per cent that they are.

The terror threat level in the UK is currently at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.

Britain is seen as less vulnerable than Paris, Brussels and other European cities because of the expertise of the police and security services and as it does not have a land border firearms are more difficult to obtain.

However, David Cameron recently stated that there have been seven foiled terror plots in 12 months.

He has also ordered a review of the law to ensure officers using firearms have the necessary legal backing when they make “split second” decisions to shoot.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was hit by a backlash last month after speaking out against “shooting to kill” terrorists carrying out attacks in Britain.

He later said that he supported any “strictly necessary force” needed to protect the UK in such situations.