Health Minister John Hutton has backed calls for tougher laws to stop parents who kill their children getting away with murder.

Mr Hutton's intervention is a significant boost for a three-year campaign by The Argus, backed by MPs, Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove councillors, to close a loophole that has provoked widespread anger.

His comments increased pressure on the Government to change the Criminal Justice Bill, receiving its Second Reading in the Commons today.

The Argus launched its campaign after two Sussex couples suspected of killing children in their care escaped prosecutions for murder.

A Brighton couple, jailed for cruelty to five children were originally tried for murdering three babies but the case collapsed.

Murder charges against Simon and Michelle McWilliam whose adoptive son John Smith, four, died in their care, failed at the committal stage last year because it could not be proved which inflicted fatal injuries.

The Portslade couple were jailed for cruelty.

Mr Hutton spoke out after a tragic case in his own Barrow-in-Furness constituency. A coroner ruled six-month-old Angus Fell was unlawfully killed by his parents but they escaped charges because there was no conclusive proof which parent was responsible for shaking the boy to death.

Both parents, Anthony and Angela Fell, refused to give evidence.

Mr Hutton is calling for the law to be changed to make it a criminal offence, punishable by a jail term, to refuse to give evidence.

He said: "Not only might the threat of sanction be a deterrent but also where such tragedies do occur those responsible can be brought to justice.

"I feel it is possible and necessary to improve the law in this area."

The Government has so far failed to act but Home Secretary David Blunkett promised he was addressing "with vigour" ways to prosecute parents and guardians who murder babies and toddlers in their care after The Argus lobbied him at the Home Office last month.

Reporter Phil Mills presented him with a copy of The Argus, carrying the front page open letter calling for action from editor Simon Bradshaw.