THERESA May has denied announcing a U-turn on security powers with her pledge to rip up human rights laws in order to combat terrorism.

The Prime Minister wants to change any laws that are perceived to get in the way of preventing jihadis waging war on Britain following three attacks in three months, the most recent targeting the London Bridge area last weekend.

Her ideas include longer prison sentences for those convicted of terrorist offences, making it easier to deport foreign terror suspects and doing more to restrict the movements of suspects when the evidence suggests they are a "threat" but there is not enough evidence to prosecute them.

As Home Secretary, Mrs May scrapped control orders, which allowed longer curfews among other tough measures, claiming they were being knocked down in the courts. She replaced them with less restrictive so-called Tpims.

Asked if she was now making a U-turn by seeking to beef-up the powers, the Tory leader told a campaign event in Norfolk: "No. The reason we did what we did with control orders was because the courts were increasingly knocking those control orders down, so we did introduce the Tpims and we have subsequently enhanced the Tpims.

"Now we're seeing the threat evolving, becoming more complex, it's right we look again at what powers are needed to ensure the police and security services have what they need."

Earlier, it was pointed out how the Conservatives had accused the then Labour government of a knee-jerk response following the 2005 London bombings.

Asked if she was doing the same by warning of a need to tighten human rights legislation, Mrs May replied: "No, what I've set out is very clear. We are seeing the terrorist threat changing, we are seeing it evolve and we need to respond to that.

"As I said on the steps of Downing Street, enough is enough and things have to change and that's why I said I believe we do need to do more to tackle the ideology that is motivating the perpetrators of these attacks.

"We do need to have those international agreements to regulate cyberspace so that terrorists cannot plan online,” she added.

But Jeremy Corbyn said that the country had to protect its basic freedoms and rights. “The way you deal with a threat to democracy is not by reducing democracy, it’s by dealing with the threat. That means properly funding our police and security services.

“She is the one who took 20,000 police officers off the streets, we will put 10,000 back on the streets straight away or as soon as we can recruit them,” he added.

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, accused Mrs May of launching a "nuclear arms race" in terror laws, which would reduce freedom, not terrorism.

Meantime, Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, was caught out in a live TV interview when he cited an example of the party backing anti-terror legislation, only to be told that Mr Corbyn had missed the vote.

Sir Keir's comments came amid a barrage of Conservative accusations that the Labour leader had opposed anti-terror legislation throughout his time in Parliament.

The former Director of Public Prosecutions stressed how Labour had backed last year's Investigatory Powers Act on powers for the security and intelligence services with a three-line whip requiring all the party's MPs to support it.

But it was pointed out on ITV’s Good Morning Britain that Mr Corbyn and Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, had not voted on the bill's third reading in June 2016.

Sir Keir admitted he did not know whether Mr Corbyn had taken part in the division but suggested he might have been "paired" with a Conservative MP; a routine arrangement which allows MPs who need to be absent from the Commons chamber for a vote to do so without altering the result.