Online jihadist propaganda attracts more clicks in the UK than any other country in Europe, a report has found.

Britain is the fifth-biggest audience in the world for extremist content after Turkey, the US, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Policy Exchange’s study said.

The think tank suggested the UK public would support new laws criminalising reading content that glorifies terror.

The government has told internet companies like Facebook and Google to do more to to remove jihadist material.

Former US military chief General David Petraeus, who wrote a foreword to the report, said efforts to combat online extremism were “inadequate”.

He said the bombing of a London Tube train last week “merely underscored once again the ever-present nature of this threat.”

“There is no doubting the urgency of this matter,” he said.

“The status quo clearly is unacceptable.”

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The report suggested new laws to criminalise the “aggravated possession and/or persistent consumption” of extremist ideology – but not to criminalise someone who “stumbles across” jihadist content.

It said child pornography was approached in a similar way, with tougher penalties for the most serious cases.

Under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000, it is currently an offence to possess information that could assist a would-be terrorist, but not material which glorifies terrorism.

Policy Exchange surveyed 2,001 adults in the UK, finding 74% of people supported new laws to criminalise the “persistent consumption” of extremist material online.