PLANS to give every town and city its own directly-elected police chief are in crisis after a powerful committee of MPs warned the posts could be “hijacked” by the BNP and other extremists.

The Labour-dominated Home Affairs Committee urged Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to rip up proposals for elections to police authorities, within hours of taking evidence on the danger they posed.

The highly unusual step – committees usually take many weeks to produce reports – was designed to seize the initiative ahead of today’s publication of the flagship Policing and Crime Bill.

It follows howls of protests, including from Cleveland Police Authority, which also warned the plan would open the door to “extremist groups or single-issue campaigners”.

The echoing of that criticism by the Home Affairs Committee also signals a major revolt by Labour MPs when – or if – the plan reaches the Commons next year.

The Bill aims to strengthen the link between the public and their local police force by creating directly- elected Crime and Policing Representatives (CPRs) within two years.

There would be a CPR for each borough – for example, for Darlington, Durham City, Easington, Sedgefield, Teesdale and Wear Valley – to put pressure on the chief constable to act on local crime problems.

The letter to Ms Smith, penned by Keith Vaz, the committee’s Labour chairman, stressed the committee stood side-by-side with the Association of Police Authorities, which said “taking party politics out of policing” had been one of the successes in crime-fighting over the past decade.

It also agreed that “improving public confidence in policing must be our key aim for the future, but direct elections to police authorities are not the solution.

“Indeed, this is more likely to undermine confidence if directly elected representatives make promises they cannot deliver, or if policing is hijacked by single issue groups or extremists.”

Councillor Dave McLuckie, Cleveland Police Authority’s chairman, said: “The fact that such a major committee of MPs has come out with such a damning verdict on the direct elections proposal is a very significant development.”

A Home Office spokesman said Ms Smith would respond to the committee’s warnings when she publishes the controversial Bill today.