Proposals to offer extremists including returning jihadists taxpayer-funded housing and help into work are a "fundamental error" amounting to bribes to potential terrorists, it has been claimed.
The Home Office is looking at a new strategy to reintegrate extremists that could even see them propelled to the top of council house waiting lists if needed.
Under pilot schemes being looked at, police and local authorities would assess extremists formerly investigated as suspects by the security services to see what danger they pose and what it would take to help reintegrate them into society.
Extremists who had nowhere suitable to live could be put in social housing by the local council and could have their rent paid if necessary, according to reports.
They could also be given priority on waiting lists and helped into education and training or found a job with public bodies or charities.
This sounds like a reward for being on a list of potential terrorists. You can't buy people's loyalty to this country
Andrew Bridgen MP
Up to 20,000 extremists who have been previously investigated by MI5 will be targeted in the scheme called Operation Constrain, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Whitehall sources confirmed the scheme could also apply to Britons returning from Islamic State group territory in Syria.
A source said: "We are planning a number of pilots to explore the best way to diverting such people from terrorism and extremist activity."
Col Richard Kemp, a former Government counter terrorism adviser, last night questioned whether would-be terrorists were driven by deprivation. Opening the policy to people who had gone to fight in Syria would be "obscene", he said.
He said: "I think it's a very much mistaken policy. When you look at the profile of many of the people who have been involved in terrorist attacks in the UK, or travelled overseas, they do not come from deprived backgrounds.
He went on: "If someone is inclined to be an extremist, you are not going to bribe them into not being a terrorist. It's not going to change them."
Andrew Bridgen, Conservative MP for north west Leicestershire, added: "This sounds like a reward for being on a list of potential terrorists. You can't buy people's loyalty to this country."
The debate over what to do with Britons returning from Syria has intensified as the caliphate of Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil) collapses.
Around 850 Britons are thought to have travelled to Syria in recent years and around 350 are thought to have returned. So far only a small proportion have been prosecuted and counter terrorism officials have said it can be difficult to find evidence that they committed crimes in the war zones of Syria and Iraq.
Max Hill QC, the government's terrorism law watchdog, earlier this month suggested those who had travelled out of naivety might need to be reintegrated rather than prosecuted.
MI5 earlier this year confirmed that some 20,000 people had been "persons of interest" in counter terrorism investigations in the past.
The Home Office said: "We are reviewing our counter-terrorism strategy to make sure we respond to the evolving threat in the most effective way we can."
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