The ever-controversial Katie Hopkins has incurred the wrath of her critics once again after claiming parents of obese children should be prosecuted for “child cruelty”.

The comments were made in an interview ahead of her upcoming TLC documentary My Fat Story, which is due to air in January.

The former Apprentice star gained almost four stone in weight for the film, to ‘prove’ that overweight people should “stop blaming everyone else for problems they can control”.

In footage from it, she was seen crying as she recited what she had eaten in a day, before saying: “This is a stupid project. I hate fat people for making me do this.”

In another vitriolic rant released by TLC on Christmas Eve, Hopkins said: “If I see the parents of fat children, I have no inhibitions about pointing them, telling them, looking them in the eye and saying: ‘You've got a fat kid, it is your fault, you are miss-treating your child, this is child cruelty.'"

Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Show all 16 1 /16 Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on 'plus size' 'To call yourself 'plus-size' is just a euphemism for being fat. Life is much easier when you're thinner. Big is not beautiful, of course a job comes down to how you look.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on naming children ‘I think you can tell a great deal from a name. For me, there are certain names that I hear and I think ‘Urgh’. For me, a name is a shortcut of finding out what class that child comes from and makes me ask, ‘Do I want my children to play with them?’ There’s a whole set of things that go with children like that and that’s why I don’t like those sorts of children. ‘Hi, this is my daughter Charmaine’. I hear: ‘Hi, I am thick and ignorant.’’ Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on gender equality 'Women don't want equal treatment, they couldn't handle it if they got it. It's a tough world out there. What a lot of women are actually looking for is special treatment. What women need to realise is that they have to toughen up.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on immigration 'I've always said if you go into a school playground and shout Mohammad, you'll probably get 100 children running towards you!" Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins to Benefits Street's White Dee 'Do you not feel like the patron saint of druggies and dropouts?' Channel 5 Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on tattoos 'Are tattoos just a badge for the stupid? For me, and for lots of people like me, when you see tatoos you think of someone who is just looking for attention, who hasn't managed to find a way in their life through conventional means and who is just shouting 'I want attention! I want to be looked at!' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on addiction ‘I don’t believe what Russell Brand says about addiction. I just don’t buy it. Gazza likes drinking, let him crack on. He is enjoying himself.’ Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on The X Factor 'The X Factor 2013 has ended in a painful showdown between a fat mum in a jumpsuit (Sam Bailey) and a small boy in whatever his mum laid out for him on his bed (Nicholas McDonald)' ITV Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on the Egyptian uprising 'The difference between most mothers and me is that I didn’t sit around drinking coffee at baby group for 12 months after the birth of my baby. No, in three weeks I was back in my suit, back at my desk earning profit for my business and I don’t see why other women shouldn’t do the same.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on maternity leave 'Egyptian uprising continues to look like Bonfire Night. Protest fireworks. Right up there with angry cup cakes.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on 'gingerism' 'Ginger babies. Like a baby. Just so much harder to love. A ginger person with tattoos called Jayden? The triumvirate of horror!' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on affairs 'I lied to get someone else's husband because I wanted him. I give myself 8 out of 10 for ruthlessness for that one.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on the elderly ‘Personally I hate mobility scooters. I find their owners intolerable. Ran past a mobility scooter going up hill. Made me giggle. I need to grow up and stop being an arse.’ Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins after the Glasgow helicopter crash 'Life expectancy in Scotland is 59.5. Goodness me. That lot will do anything to avoid working until retirement.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on Ramadan 'Channel 4 broadcasts Islamic calls to prayer for Ramadan. A 30 day reminder that minority rules in the UK. Any more PC, it'd be a bloody laptop.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on self-harming 'I am advised by the Twitterati to 'cut myself'. I grazed myself on my house gate yesterday. Will that suffice?'

Hopkins also insisted she had “no problem” reporting the parents in question to social services.

“Somehow in this horrible society of ours, being fat is seen as kind of ‘chubby’ or ‘acceptable’ or kind of ‘cuddly’.

“Well, it’s none of those things, that is child cruelty right there. The fact that we are now selling plus-sized uniforms for kids in schools is absolutely abhorrent to me.