Former home office minister and Kent MP Ann Widdecombe has hinted she may defy her party's stance and vote for the Government's controversial counter-terrorism legislation.

Miss Widdecombe, MP for Maidstone and Weald, said plans to extend the time terror suspects could be detained from 28 to 42 days would be acceptable if there was a "sunset" clause that meant the legislation had to be renewed by MPs each year.

"My reasoning is very simple indeed: it’s that if we have a state of emergency then the Government should be able to ask parliament for emergency powers, as we did for example over Northern Ireland, providing that the legislation does not remain on the statute books indefinitely until somebody gets around to repealing it," she told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.