Theresa May attacks 'deeply disturbing' treatment of children in US immigration centres

Theresa May has spoken for the first time about children being taken from their parents and put in cages at US immigration centres, only weeks before Donald Trump’s visit to the UK.

As scenes of distressed children in immigration centres continue to emerge, the Prime Minister faced criticism for her silence.

But she has now branded the policy ‘deeply disturbing’ after she faced a direct grilling at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Responding to the SNP’s Ian Blackford, Mrs May said: ‘On the very important issue of what we have seen in the United States, the pictures of children being held in what appear to be cages are deeply disturbing.

‘This is wrong, this is not something we agree with. This is not the United Kingdom’s approach.

‘Indeed, when I was Home Secretary I ended the routine detention of families with children.’

She also hinted that a direct discussion of the policy would come during Trump’s visit to the UK.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

• Police arrest 23-year-old man after five injured in explosion at Southgate tube station

• Watch this careless Yodel delivery driver hurl a box of china antiques down a flight of steps

• Malmo shooting: Three dead after gunman opens fire on crowd celebrating World Cup win in Sweden

• Council paints double yellow lines around pothole instead of fixing it

• On the run: Britain’s most wanted murderer ‘spotted in Marbella, Thailand and Dubai’

‘We have a special, long standing and enduring relationship with the United States, and I think that is right that there will be a range of issues I will be discussing with President Trump’, she said.

‘A range of issues about our shared interests and I think it is important that when we see the President of the United States here in the United Kingdom we are able to have those discussions.’

The immigration policy was previously described by Tory MP Sam Gyimah as ‘indefensible’.

‘Separating children from their parents in this way is beyond dreadful. This policy is indefensible, pure and simple’, he wrote on Twitter.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, described the policy as ‘shocking’.

‘It is tragic and shocking to see innocent children caged like animals and to hear their cries of anguish after being forcibly separated from their parents’, he wrote.

‘It is immoral and goes against fundamental human rights. Whatever your political views on migration in the USA, there is no justification for such cruel and inhumane treatment.’

When pressed on the UK government’s response to the policy, a No 10 spokesperson said: ‘I would point you to the UK’s own immigration policy. It does not apply these measures and does not intend to do so.

‘The welfare and safeguarding of children is at the heart of our immigration policy. We do not separate child refugee or asylum seekers from their families’