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Mohamed Ali Harrath has reportedly been advising the Metropolitan Police, the UK’s biggest force, on countering Muslim extremism.

Lady Neville-Jones, who chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee, and is a former governor of the BBC, has called for the Home Office and Scotland Yard to explain themselves.

She told The Times: “Unless and until the Interpol red notice is removed it seems quite wrong that Mohamed Ali Harrath should be employed as an adviser.

“The Government must answer some very serious questions about its border control and vetting systems. Both the Home Office and Metropolitan Police have access to Interpol’s information. Did the Home Office access this information before allowing Mohamed Ali Harrath to enter, and did the Metropolitan Police check it before allowing him to work for them? If not, why not?”

Lady Neville-Jones, the Shadow Security minister, added: “If they did access Interpol’s data, how could the Home Office let in and the Met employ an individual with a red notice for alleged links to a suspected terrorist organisation? The FCO must be aware that the Tunisian Government, an ally in the fight against terrorism, has asked for the extradition of this man.”

Tunisian-born Mr Harrath, 45, is listed as wanted on the Interpol website as the subject of a red notice issued in 1992.

Interpol is the world’s largest international police organisation.

The site lists his categories of alleged offences as counterfeiting, forgery, crimes involving the use of weapons, explosives and terrorism.

He has allegedly been convicted in absentia of numerous criminal and terrorism-related offences by Tunisian courts and sentenced to 56 years in prison.

Mr Harrath allegedly co-founded the Tunisian Islamic Front (FIT), an organisation which the Tunisian government claims has the aim of establishing “an Islamic state by means of armed revolutionary violence”.

Mr Harrath has denied that the FIT has any terrorist link, saying in the past that it was simply a “nonviolent political party founded in 1986 to oppose the one-party state in Tunisia”.

However, he is also reported to have said: “There is nothing wrong or criminal in trying to establish an Islamic state”.

The Met refused to comment on the story.

It has also emerged the Met had been providing funding, estimated to be tens of thousands of pounds, for an annual Muslim gathering, Global Peace and Unity, hosted by Mr Harrath’s Islam Channel, which is based in London.

The event was addressed this year by leading politicians including Shahid Malik, the Justice Minister, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, and Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Home Secretary.

It has also been reported that Mr Harrath’s Islam Channel was earlier this year rebuked by Ofcom, the media regulator, for showing a biased film about Jerusalem that only gave the Muslim viewpoint.

Ofcom found last year it had broken its broadcasting code by twice showing the documentary, Jerusalem: A Promise of Heaven, which argued Muslims had been deprived ownership of the holy city.