British officials have admitted it will become harder to recover children abducted and taken out of the country by a parent if no Brexit deal is struck with the EU.

The comments come as the Government publishes its latest Brexit negotiating paper on judicial cooperation after Brexit, including proposals to end the direct jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK.

This exposes the reality of a no deal Brexit, abducted children at greater risk and families plunged into uncertainty.

The Government needs to end its heartless insistence that no deal is better than a bad deal.

Avoiding the devastating human consequences of an extreme Brexit should come ahead of the ideological obsessions of Tory Brexiteers.

The Conservatives claim to be the party of family values, but their plans would risk tearing more families apart.