Majority of Britons think government should phone tap at time of heightened terror threat, report shows

More than half of the UK population believe the government should be allowed to tap into phones at a time of heightened terror threat, a new survey has revealed.

The report, British Social Attitudes, published by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), also shows that eight in 10 people think the government should have the right to keep people under video surveillance in public areas, while 50 per cent think they should be able to monitor emails and other information exchanged over the internet.

Additionally, 53 per cent of the population would support detaining people indefinitely without putting them on trial at a time of heightened terror threat. Seven in 10 think authorities should have the right to stop and search people at random if a terror attack is suspected.

The findings suggest that the majority of the British public is in favour of the police using more of their power to tackle terrorism when the terror alert is high.