HITTING CHILDREN IS WRONG

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 8th Jul 2003

Dr Jenny Tonge, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, is lending her voice to the campaign to outlaw physical punishment of children.

Dr Tonge, along with fellow Liberal Democrats Paul Burstow MP and Patsy Calton MP, has signed an Early Day Motion in Parliament which urges the Government to scrap the law allowing "reasonable chastisement of children".

Dr Tonge, a grandmother three times over, said: "I believe that children, as the smallest and weakest in society, should be afforded the same protection from being hit as adults and that equal protection for children is a fundamental human right."

"I urge the Government to look at the progress made in many other countries on this issue with a view to modernising the law in the UK at the earliest possible opportunity."