A mother jailed for cruelty to her five children is pregnant with her ninth child, we can reveal.

The 28-year-old Brighton woman is expecting her ninth child in May. It is likely to be taken into care the moment it is born.

The news has rekindled debate on enforced sterilisation but Brighton MP Des Turner said any move to impose it would be tantamount to Nazism.

The mother was released from Holloway Prison last year after being sentenced to two-and-a-half years.

Lewes Crown Court had heard she left the children in appalling conditions.

Babies were fed roast dinners before they were weaned, slept in bedding soiled with excrement and infested with flies, had head lice, were ignored and rarely loved, and had no idea what cutlery or toothbrushes were.

The woman and her partner, 40, were charged with murdering two of her babies and a baby nephew but were acquitted because the court could not decide which of the accused was responsible.

Experts said the babies were probably smothered. The mother accused her husband of carrying out the deeds because the babies were crying and deserved to die.

The husband is currently serving two-and-a-half years for neglect, three-and-a-half years for rape and a further six months for threatening to slit the throat of a social worker.

The mother's eighth child was conceived while she was living in a bail hostel prior to her trial for neglect. Her husband is not thought to be the father.

One social services insider said: "This latest pregnancy is just crazy. No matter how much she's educated about birth control she will fall pregnant again.

"Any future children she has will be taken straight into care because of her conviction. You can see why many people support sterilisation."

But Mr Turner, MP for Brighton Kemp Town and who took a keen interest in the cruelty case, said he would not support the idea.

He said: "This is bound to raise the issue again and I can well see why.

"I can understand the argument but there are moral questions about people's civil liberties.

"While her pregnancy will seem abhorrent to many, enforced sterilisation is verging on the Nazi approach to justice and I cannot support it."