KENT’S top policeman Mike Fuller says he did not attempt to influence the county’s MPs to support plans to detain terrorist suspects for up to 90 days.

It emerged that the chief constables across the county wrote to MPs setting out why they believed the measures planned would help in the battle against terror and improve public safety.

A political row has broken out after Tory MPs criticised the involvement of chief constables in what they claimed was inappropriate lobbying on behalf of the Government.

In a statement, Kent Police said Mr Fuller had emailed MPs a briefing note prepared by the Metropolitan Police following a request from ACPO - the Association of Chief Police Officers. The statement denied he was seeking to influence politicians ahead of last week’s crucial vote in which the Government was defeated.

Kent Police said: "The UK’s police chiefs have been publicly calling for some time for more powers to tackle the very real threat of terrorism.

"Terrorism-related investigations are invariably painstaking and complex and it is vital to public safety that they succeed. The chiefs agreed the measures they felt were most likely to help achieve this."

The statement added that Mr Fuller "agreed totally" with the views of his colleagues, especially in view of the county’s proximity to Europe.

"In Kent, the gateway to Europe, we are particularly conscious of the global terror threat. He did not seek to influence how the MPs voted, but simply to provide information from a police perspective. Several of the MPs emailed back to say how useful they found the information," the statement said.