Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has said security services should be able to monitor the emails and phone calls of anyone who poses a threat to Britain as he is "not particularly bothered with this civil liberties stuff".
Mr Johnson said that the authorities have to be "absolutely determined to monitor these people" and added that those who are unwilling to accept British values should "go away".
The Conservatives want to resurrect the Communications Data Bill, which would give the security and intelligence services greater power to monitor terrorists. However, they are being blocked by the Liberal Democrats.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Johnson said: "In many ways the guys who did this kind of thing are very often at the fringes of criminality, lured into terrorism by very cynical and clever idealogues. In many ways they are vulnerable to all sorts of criminality.
"You have got to have a very tough security solution, to be absolutely determined to monitor these people, know where they are, know who they're talking to.
"I'm not particularly interested in this civil liberties stuff when it comes to these people's emails and mobile phone conversations. If they are a threat to our society then I want them properly listened to.
"But you've also got to engage and find ways of getting through to them, making sure they are not lured into this kind of destructive insanity.
"I think the values we stand for in London and Paris are the same - enlightenment and freedom. In our society there are limits on what you can say.
"What we do not accept is that people's sense of being offended justifies in any way any act of violence. We have to stand up very firmly for freedom of speech, for democracy and the rule of law.
"The Muslim mayor of Rotterdam said to the would be Dutch jihadis 'if you don't like freedom then go away'. I think that was very powerful, very moving."
His comments came as David Cameron attended the Unity march in Paris.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Cameron said: "In a free country there's never any way you can guarantee against an attack.
"But what we do have in Britain is brilliant security and intelligence services, very strong counter-terrorism policing and also a way of co-ordinating the work they do with special forces and others.
"Crucially in recent months the brilliance of our intelligence services has prevented a number of plots including to kill police officers.
"The threat level is appropriate given all the intelligence. To push it higher means you have to have warning of the imminence of a particular attack."
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