Anti-vivisection campaigners have criticised the work of scientists at an animal testing laboratory at Harwell Oxford science centre.

The Anti-Vivisection Coalition said experiments performed by Medical Research Council staff were “inherently cruel”. It spoke out after a film crew was given access to the Mary Lyon Centre, a mouse breeding unit.

Centre director Dr Sara Wells said: “The use of animals in medical research remains essential for us to develop new and better treatments that save people’s lives.”