Foreign criminals could be working in high security areas of British airports because of a failure to vet workers properly, it has emerged.
The story, which was reported in a Newsnight investigation, ran on the front page of today's Telegraph.
Airport staff are checked only for any offences committed in Britain, and are not vetted for any that may have been carried out in their countries of origin.
The government apparently decided not to carry out foreign criminal record checks because of the amount of time and complexity involved in dealing with different jurisdictions.
The department for transport said the vetting of foreign criminal records was being considered as part of an independent review, announced in December, of personnel security.
The Tories and Lib Dems immediately condemned the failure to carry out full security checks on all 200,000 or so "airside" workers.
The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said it was "astonishing, given airside at an airport is one of the most vulnerable and critical security points".
When asked whether convicted terrorists could be working at Heathrow airport, the transport minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, told Newsnight: "What we're absolutely confident of [is] any individual who is working at our airports would have to go through the same screening process as anybody who wants to travel or anybody else who is working at our airports to make sure they are safe when they are working in that restricted zone area."
The government is currently trying to demonstrate that it is tough on terrorism by extending the period for which terror suspects can be held without charge to 42 days.
But does the news that workers at UK airports are not being properly vetted makes a mockery of Labour's stance? Has it got its priorities right when it comes to tackling terrorism?
This is an edited extract from the Wrap, theguardian.com's daily digest of the day's papers
