Sir Keir Starmer has met with the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey in Parliament, in the wake of the sentencing of her daughter’s killers.

Esther Ghey is now campaigning for under-16s to be blocked from accessing social media on smartphones and for stronger parental controls to flag potentially harmful searches to parents.

The Labour leader said he was “utterly in awe of her strength and bravery in the face of such unimaginable grief, as she campaigns to make sure no parent has to go through what she did”.

Sir Keir added: “Labour will work with campaigners and parents like Esther to ensure our children and young people have the mental health support they need. It’s what Brianna and her family deserve.”

Downing Street has so far declined to back the call from the mother of the murdered teenager, instead stressing the impact the Online Safety Act will have.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also facing criticism over a transgender jibe at Labour during Prime Minister’s Questions, while Esther Ghey watched from the Commons gallery.

Concluding the session, the Prime Minister said: “If I could just say also to Brianna Ghey’s mother who is here, as I said earlier this week, what happened was an unspeakable and shocking tragedy.

“As I said earlier this week, in the face of that, for her mother to demonstrate the compassion and empathy that she did last weekend, I thought demonstrated the very best of humanity in the face of seeing the very worst of humanity.

“She deserves all our admiration and praise for that.”