Bob Stewart, the senior Conservative MP and former Army officer, has admitted he had been "kind of a torturer" when he was posted to Northern Ireland.

The former Army colonel said that he believes torture is sometimes "justified" and can work as an interrogation method.

Describing how during The Troubles he had shown "people pictures of their friends that had been blown up", he said: "Technically as you look at it today I was a kind of a torturer.

"Of course it was acceptable then. It's now unacceptable and now it's defined as torture."