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The wife of Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen says she was forced to stand in a torrential downpour for half an hour with their one-year-old son when visiting the White House.

On a recent trip to America Nevena Bridgen and her son Blake-Perun were invited to visit the Washington landmark as guests of her sister, a journalist.

But when the pair tried to gain access, which Mrs Bridgen says was approved the day before, they were ordered to leave a sheltered area and wait in the rain for security clearance.

In a video shared on Twitter Mrs Bridgen and the couple’s son are told to leave the tent near to a White House entrance.

When Mrs Bridgen asks: “You are going to ask me to stand in the rain with a baby?”

A security guard is heard to respond: “This is not a request.”

As staff try to hurry Mrs Bridgen along as she is putting a rain cover on the pushchair, she explains: “I need time to sort something so that my baby is not ill in the end because you are sending me out in the rain.

“I’m going to report this to my government. This is the baby of a British politician.”

A male voice is heard to say: “Ok. You’re welcome to report it.”

Walking away from the tent, Mrs Bridgen turns to the camera and says: “I guess this is the great America that Trump speaks about.”

When the camera stopped Mrs Bridgen, a Serbian opera singer and the founder of the Wives of Westminster lifestyle blog, and her son were forced to wait for “at least half an hour” before being told they wouldn’t be allowed in.

Speaking to LeicestershireLive on returning from the US, Mrs Bridgen said Blake-Perun has a fever.

She said: “I found the treatment and experience very distressing.

"What I found distressing and highly disappointing is the visible absence of any sensitivity for a baby and a mother, and the lack of any humanity and basic decency in the way we were treated at the People’s House.

“They were ready to arrest me if I did not move, and that is something that I find shocking, to be treated like that as a mother of a little baby, political spouse, artist and a family member of a journalist in the White House press corps.

“We didn't just walk into the White House on a whim, we submitted all our paperwork in advance and we had an appointment.”

She went on: “If it was only me, it would not bother me.

"But the cruelty exercised over a one-year-old baby to wait in rain without shelter is appalling. The most concerning is that they do not seem to care. There’s no humanity.”

After hearing about the incident, Andrew Bridgen MP sent a letter to the White House press secretary.

In it, he said: “As a member of the UK Parliament, which rightly prides itself on welcoming many thousands of visitors from around the world every week, I would be very disappointed if any visitors to our “House” were treated the way my wife and baby were treated today at the White House.

“Especially as this treatment of my family was at the hands of officials of the country I regard as my own country’s most trusted ally.”

Mrs Bridgen added: “This behaviour is unthinkable in Britain.

"The security in No.10 and the British Parliament do not treat visitors like this. This level of rudeness, aggressiveness and instrumental cruelty is unthinkable in Britain, No.10 and in the British parliament.

“If this is how they treat babies, mothers, the wife of their British colleague and a family member of the journalist in the press corps, then what can others expect to experience on their visit to the White House?

“No baby, no mother should be treated in this way.

“What's sad is that there is a visible atmosphere of hostility and the absence of basic humanity in the White House.

“There is a predominant rude manner of communication at the White House, they pride themselves in cruelty, aggressiveness, and hostility that mirrors their leader Donald Trump.”

LeicestershireLive has contacted the White House for a comment.