Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, will seek today to salvage the Government's new anti-terrorism laws by increasing the role of judges in issuing control orders detaining terrorist suspects under house arrest.
While a YouGov poll for The Telegraph shows that a majority of the public backs the plan to restrict the movement of suspected terrorists who cannot be brought to trial, MPs and peers said the legislation would not get through Parliament without further judicial safeguards.
Ministers will be heartened by the survey, which shows that voters largely share Tony Blair's view that protecting the public against an atrocity like those of September 11 or Madrid should take priority over civil liberties.
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