A FORMER children's minister has called for the CPS to drop the case against Ashya King’s parents and criticised the decision to arrest them.

Tim Loughton said the biggest outrage was that Ashya's case had almost become a child protection issue and his parents were being criminalised when that was ''clearly not the case''.

The Tory MP said an arrest warrant should not have been issued and that Mr and Mrs King should not be in custody.

Daily Echo:

Tory MP and former children's minister Tim Loughton

He said: ''The CPS needs to drop this and make sure the parents come out and go and see their child.

''A very urgent conversation needs to be had with the NHS as to whether they will entertain grounds of them coming back here and going to a private clinic for proton beam treatment, which should be NHS or privately funded, or they should be allowed to take Ashya to Prague.''

Mr Loughton said he had not heard of any overriding clinical reason that the proton beam treatment would be detrimental to Ashya's health.

He also criticised Hampshire Assistant Chief Constable Chris Shead for the way he had handled the situation.

He said: ''It was a rather hapless interview by the assistant chief constable, who did not seem to know why they were looking to arrest the parents.

''We were told there was a danger to the child's life, but the child is in hospital so a little bit of common sense might have led them to look at whether there was a threat to his life.

''Clearly people are not talking to each other properly and clearly people are not using common sense.

''Everyone is being bureaucratic and defensive and jumping on to the child protection bandwagon.''