Tom Brake, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Justice, has given a warm welcome to the announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today that the family unit at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre, where children are detained awaiting deportation, will be closed.

Tom commnets:

Locking up innocent children for months on end can lead to serious physical and psychological harm. It is a disgrace the Labour Government allowed this to take place in 21st century Britain. The Liberal Democrats have had a huge influence in Government and the closure of Yarl’s Wood family unit is a sign of that. I am proud to be in a party which will end the cruelty of child detention.”

Here’s what Nick Clegg said today at PMQs in full:

“It was simply a moral outrage that last year the Labour Government imprisoned behind bars 1,000 children who were innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever. This Coalition Government, like so many other things, will once again restore a sense of decency and liberty to the way in which we conduct ourselves.

“I can confirm that the Government will come forward shortly with an announcement about how we will deliver on our pledge to end child detention and to close the Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre for good.”

Utterly bizarrely, The Guardian – supposedly a proud paper of centre-left social justice – ignores the story that the new Government is ending child detention in preference for focusing on what it terms Nick Clegg’s ‘gaffe’: the omission by Nick Clegg of the words ‘family unit’ in his final sentence.

Good to see CP Snow’s paper still has a keen eye for what really matters.