The mother of Archie Battersbee has written an urgent letter to the Health Secretary urging the government to prevent his life support from being withdraw.

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) has told the government to keep the 12-year-old alive while it considers an application by his family. 

Despite the UN CRPD's injunction, the hospital trust caring for Archie has said it plans to go ahead with removing his life support on Monday. 

The government is yet to respond to the UN CRPD interim measures.

In her letter to Health Secretary Stephen Barclay, Archie's mother, Hollie Dance, said it would be "an extraordinary cruelty" and a "flagrant breach of Archie's rights as a disabled person" if doctors remove his life support. 

"Archie is entitled to have the decisions about his life and death, taken by the NHS and UK courts, to be scrutinised by an international human rights body. Hastening his death to prevent that would be completely unacceptable," she said. 

"I trust that you will now act immediately, as a member of the government responsible for the NHS, to ensure that this does not happen, and our country honours its obligations under the international human rights treaties which we have signed and ratified."