If the UK is this insecure....

...what about Canada...

Pakistani students wanting to study in Britain who are deemed a risk may only be interviewed over the phone, and from outside the country, it emerged.

And the Home Office revealed a final decision on any visa application from Pakistan is now being dealt with by officials in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

It raises fresh security fears around the student visa system after it emerged all but one of the 12 suspects being held over an alleged plot to bomb shopping centres in Manchester came into Britain from Pakistan using student visas.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith faced a series of fresh allegations over weaknesses in the system when she made her first Commons statement on the counter-terrorism operation on Monday, including claims the security services have previously issued warnings about flaws in the system and that a report from a chief immigration officer criticising the handling of student visas in Pakistan three years ago was suppressed.

Ms Smith was also criticised for dodging any questions about the decision not to charge Tory MP Damian Green, allegations that the national security claims surrounding the case were exaggerated and police tactics in the G20 protests.

The Home Secretary appeared cut adrift making the statement, with no senior Cabinet members present for the duration while Tory former Cabinet minister Douglas Hogg suggested she should have been making a resignation statement.