MPs should be ashamed that prescriptions for medicinal cannabis were not being honoured, said Sir Mike Penning.

The joint chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on medical cannabis under prescription raised the case of the Appleby family who travelled from Kent to the Netherlands to buy drugs for their daughter. But these was seized by Border Force staff at Southend Airport.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has met some of the parents and campaigners, said specialist doctors could prescribe the drug in the UK now, and the “guidance is not a barrier to prescription”.