PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice spoke in the House of Commons last night to urge the Government to let a family of asylum seekers stay in the country.

Mr Prentice said the Karim family, who live in Nelson, should not be forced to go back to their home country because they could be persecuted.

The Karims, Nigel and Pearl, and their children Calvin and Crystal, 12 and 14 years, headed to England from Pakistan in 2001 for fears they would be targeted because of their Christianity.

The family's case for asylum, which has been rejected twice, is now the subject of a judicial review.