Jacqui Smith announces 300 new terror police

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, today announced an extra 300 police officers to fight terrorism and radicalisation within communities.

 At the weekend Jacqui Smith warned that as many as 30 active plots against the UK were now being investigated

Miss Smith said that the new officers work to prevent young people being drawn into extremism.

The threat to Britain was "serious and growing" and, despite a series of successful raids and convictions, we cannot simply "arrest our way out" of the problem, she said.

"We need to prevent people from becoming terrorists and supporting terrorists in the first place," she said.

"That means challenging the sort of ideology that supports terrorism, it means working in our communities to make sure that those mainstream voices are stronger, it means identifying people who might be at risk of being drawn into terrorism and violent extremism."