The Crown Prosecution Service failed to secure what could have been the first conviction for sex-selective abortion after dropping a case amid fears of "political correctness", a government aide has revealed.

Mandy Sanghera, a human rights activist who advises the government on how to tackle honour-based violence, told the Daily Telegraph how prosecutors failed to pursue a case involving an Asian woman whose family forced her to have an abortion, for fear of being labelled racist.

“When her family found out the baby was a girl, she was put under a lot of emotional pressure and duress. She did not want to have that termination,” said Ms Sanghera. “She already had a girl and they said ‘what about the dowry? We can’t afford to have another daughter’.”