THE Scottish Government has not been consulted on new laws to counter extremists, the First Minister has revealed.

Alex Salmond said he would ask Prime Minister David Cameron for an explanation as to why he was informed only half an hour after last week's announcement on new laws to crack down on terror suspects.

The terror threat level was raised from "substantial" to "severe" on Friday in response to the conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

On Monday, Mr Cameron revealed plans to counter the threat from British jihadists, including powers for the police to seize passports from UK nationals suspected of going to fight for Islamic State (IS). He had promised tough changes to the law in a press conference on Friday.

In response, the First Minister said: "I wasn't consulted and I am going to look very carefully at the Prime Minister's statement and obviously we will have our law officers have a look at the legal aspects.

"We only got told about the announcement on Friday half an hour after it was made. I can't imagine that was deliberate because it certainly never happened before, and I can't believe that people would be playing politics over something so important."

Labour, meanwhile, accused the UK Government of "disarray" over the anti-terror proposals after Downing Street admitted there was as yet no timetable for introducing legislation, and they were not certain excluding Britons from the country would be possible.

Liberal Democrats also insisted they had not "definitively" signed up to bolstering terrorism prevention and investigation measures by allowing suspects to be relocated.