A Tory peer has admitted he is "ashamed" after a detention centre was ordered to remove Disney murals after a minister claimed they made it too "welcoming".
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick ordered staff at the facility in Dover, Kent, to paint over pictures of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, as well as cartoon favourites Tom and Jerry.
The cheery pictures were removed on Tuesday last week, sparking a huge backlash.
Defending the measure in the House of Lords, Lord Murray of Blidworth said that the murals hadn't been approved and said detention facilities should be decorated in a way "befitting their purpose".
But his comments sparked anger among Tory peers, with one saying the move "sends out a message that frankly is not worthy of our country".
Refugee campaigner and Labour peer Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis as a child on the Kindertransport scheme, challenged Government claims that it took the welfare of unaccompanied migrant children seriously.
He said: "How does that relate to the arrival centre in Dover which had cartoons and welcoming signs for children and which were ordered to be removed by the Home Office minister because it might make the children feel too welcome? Isn't that a disgrace?"
Lord Murray said: "The murals he refers to were provided by our detention contractors and were not commissioned or approved by the Home Office.
"It is clearly the correct decision that these facilities have the requisite decoration befitting their purpose."
But Tory peer Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row said: "I am quite frankly ashamed at your last answer minister. I think people in this House and the wider community would have preferred your answer to have been it was a mistake to paint over those murals and that a contractor would be commissioned to repaint them.
"We are a welcoming country and whilst accept the Bill is needed to deter it is time we showed some compassion."
In response Lord Murray said: "This is a detention facility for those who entered the country unlawfully and its appropriate that it be decorated in a manner which reflects its purpose."
Another Conservative peer, Lord Cormack, lashed out at the Government's actions, saying: "This incident of the painting out of murals designed only to amuse unaccompanied children sends out a message that frankly is not worthy of our country."
And Tory former cabinet minister John Gummer, who sits in the upper chamber as Lord Deben, said: "The minister's comments about the drawing on the wall made me very unhappy. If it were his child that were in that place he would know that his child would have been uplifted by those paintings.
"What about the people who did those paintings? They did it in order to make life a bit better for those people who find themselves in a position which we all here ought to thank God that neither we nor our children are in."
Labour frontbencher Lord Coaker said he had seen the murals at the facility during an official visit.
He said: "There was nothing offensive about it. All it did was provide comfort and a sense of belonging to children in a desperate situation. That's presumably why somebody painted it. They didn't paint it out of badness. It was... an act of kindness."
