A DNA database containing details on all people in the UK would create a "nation of suspects", the Tories say.
Shadow home secretary David Davis said allowing the state to hold profiles would be "incredibly intrusive" and called for an "effective" debate.

A senior police officer has suggested a universal register, after two killers were convicted using DNA evidence.

The Home Office has said ruled this out, saying it would raise "significant practical and ethical issues".

Sally Anne Bowman's killer, Mark Dixie, and Suffolk serial murderer Steve Wright were both captured because their DNA was taken after unrelated offences.

Speaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Davis said: "Do we want to turn Britain into a nation of suspects? We have always had a presumption in our law, our basis of freedom, that people are not guilty until found guilty."

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He said a universal database risked "changing the relationship between the ordinary citizen and the state".

Mr Davis added: "The simple truth is that fingerprinting has been around a long time. There's never been a call for a fingerprinting database. The same argument applies that we are criminalising the whole population... DNA is an incredibly intrusive thing."

He said there had to be a debate about making the use of DNA information "more effective but with the minimum intrusion to the liberties of the British citizen".

Meanwhile, former home secretary David Blunkett suggested the database could be extended on a voluntary basis.

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