LABOUR condemned the government today for offering only “warm words,” after staff at a private hospital were secretly filmed “torturing” patients with learning difficulties and autism.

BBC’s Panorama documentary shown on Wednesday evening revealed that staff mocked, taunted, intimidated and repeatedly restrained patients at Whorlton Hall in Durham.

In the Commons on Thursday, Health and Social Care Minister Caroline Dinenage apologised for the treatment, which Labour’s shadow health minister Barbara Keeley branded as “tantamount to psychological torture.”

The government has said it will look at whether there was criminality in the actions, at whether the oversight system is working, and at the commission of care services.

But Ms Keeley said the government can not be trusted to deliver on promises, since a similar incident occurred in 2011.

She said the “appalling” abuse documented was a “source of shame” and should never have been allowed to happen.

Ms Keeley said: “The fact it is eight years since the Winterbourne View scandal and nothing has changed should be a source of shame for this government.

“The government seems to be getting good at warm words these days and little else. Will you take personal responsibility and say what you are doing to ensure this never happens again?”

Ms Keeley added that this was not an isolated incident, rather “part of a pattern of cruel and callous behaviour” in care institutions.

She called for such care facilities to be closed down, and for people to be moved into “supported placements” in the community.

The Care Quality Commission health watchdog also apologised after it rated the hospital “good” following an inspection in 2017.