THERESA May has been urged to intervene to stop a domestic abuse victim's family being deported, amid genital mutilation fears for the woman's three year old daughter.
Speaking in the Common, SNP MP Hannah Bardell described the abuse one of her Livingston constituents has suffered at the hands of her estranged husband, including her face being "smashed with an iPad", for refusing the genital mutilation of her little girl.
Bardell warned the child will be subject to female genital mutilation if the UK Government fails to stop the family being deported.
May said Home Secretary Amber Rudd was in the Commons to hear the case raised, adding that the "abhorrent" practice of FGM will not be accepted in the UK.
But the PM stopped short of offering her personal guarantee to take action to help Bardell's constituent.
At Prime Minister's Questions today, Bardell said: "Her face smashed with an iPad, her body beaten and forced to abort a baby girl.
"This is only some of the domestic abuse my constituent Lola has faced by her estranged husband because she has refused the genital mutilation of her daughter.
"Lola is educated, has a mortgage and had a good job with RBS until the Home Office revoked her right to work.
"I have been writing to the Home Office since March and have got nowhere.
"So will the Prime Minister intervene to stop this family being deported and this three-year-old girl being subject to female genital mutilation?"
May replied: "The Home Secretary has heard the case you have set out here today.
"The issue of female genital mutilation is one on which I think we're all agreed across this whole House - it's an abhorrent activity, it should not be taking place.
"Great efforts have been made over recent years, both in terms of strengthening the law on female genital mutilation but also on getting information out about this issue and trying to support people in communities where there is a practice of FGM.
"I think the message has to go out from this House, we will not accept FGM in this country."
According to figures, more than 23,00 British girls are circumcised every year. Medical groups, trade unions and human rights organisations estimate that there are 66,000 UK victims of FGM in the UK and more than 24,000 girls under 15 are at risk. Victims can be just a few weeks old.
Despite previous UK and Scottish Government promises to stop FGM, experts have warned that not only are girls still being taken abroad to be cut during the holiday “cutting season” but some are being mutilated in Britain.
As the summer holiday season starts, young girls are often taken abroad by relatives to undergo the procedure, which has been illegal in Scotland since 1985.
Edinburgh Airport earlier this week launched a campaign to crack down on people leaving Scotland with children to travel to central Africa where the ritual of FGM is taking place.
Aircraft passengers are being advised to look out for signs of young girls being taken abroad and Edinburgh Airport officials, alongside Police Scotland and local charity Bright Choices, are offering advice to passengers leaving the country with the aim of raising the profile of FGM, explaining the law and the health implications.
The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005 re-enacted the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 and extended protection by making it a criminal offence to have FGM carried out either in Scotland or abroad by giving those offences extra-territorial powers.
Amendments made by the Serious Crime Act 2015 closed a loophole in the 2005 Act to extend the reach of the extra-territorial offences to habitual (as well as permanent) UK residents.
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