Ken Loach's full BAFTAs speech attacking 'callous' Government

Director hits out at 'disgrace' of decision on refugee children

Ken Loach used his acceptance speech at the BAFTAs to criticise the "callous brutality" of the British Government.

The director was speaking after I, Daniel Blake won Best British Film.

This is the full transcript of his speech.

"Well, wow. This is extraordinary. A huge thank you to the academy, and from all of us, from all who made the film, starting with Paul and Rebecca, who wrote the script and produced, to our two actors and those who made it and the people in Newcastle, and to the distributors, eOne.

"And thank you to the Academy for endorsing the truth of what the film says, which hundreds of thousands of people in this country know, and that is that the most vulnerable and the poorest people are treated by this government with a callous brutality that is disgraceful, and it's a brutality that extends to keeping out refugee children that we have promised to help, and that is a disgrace too.

"But films can do many things; they can entertain, they can terrify, they can take us to worlds of the imagination, they can make us laugh, and they can tell us something about the real world we live in.

"And in that real world - it is a bit early for a political speech, I am sorry - it is getting darker, as we know."