Theresa May calls US child migrant policy "deeply disturbing" and "wrong"

Theresa May has condemned the US Government's policy of separating children from their parents if they are captured after crossing the border from Mexico, saying it was "completely and unequivocally wrong".

However, under questioning from the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford and Labour MPs including Ed Miliband, the Prime Minister defended the visit by Donald Trump in July, saying that meetings were the only way she could raise issues where the UK and US disagree.

Footage of children held in cages and crying for their parents has drawn condemnation in the past week. Mrs May said President Trump's approach to child migrants was "wrong" and "not something we agree with".

Ahead of the president's visit to the UK in July, the Prime Minister said the nature of the "special" relationship with the United States meant "when we disagree with what they are doing, we say so".

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

Mr Blackford said her answer was "disappointing" and insisted that "we should all be unreservedly condemning the actions of Donald Trump". He called on the Prime Minister to mark World Refugee Day by ending the UK's practice of indefinite detention in immigration cases - the only country in the EU to do so.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was "tragic and shocking" to see the children held in cages at migrant camps as their parents were taken off for prosecution.

Mr Trump is facing pressure from both sides of the political divide in Washington to end a "zero-tolerance" approach to illegal border crossings which requires adult migrants to be held in custody for prosecution, separated from their children.