Shocked MPs recoiled yesterday from "unlawful" coalition proposals to renew laws letting border police search and detain travellers for hours at a time without any grounds for suspicion.

In a report, MPs from the parliamentary joint committee on human rights said Home Secretary Theresa May had failed to give any good reason for keeping the policy.

Ms May has promised an overhaul of controversial "schedule 7" laws, which give police the power to hold a person passing through Britain's borders for up to nine hours without cause, with no automatic right to legal representation or the right to silence.