Top Spot is about six teenage girls growing up in Margate

Roger Gale viewed Top Spot on Friday after its premiere in Margate - Emin's home town and backdrop for the film.

Censors gave the film, which centres on six teenage girls, an 18 certificate because of a suicide scene.

Mr Gale said he believed children should be protected, but the film was about real life and many young people would identify with it.

This is about real life - it is what actually happens Roger Gale, Thanet MP

Emin withdrew the film from UK cinema release last week after it was given an 18 rating because she said the audience she had made the film for would not be able to see.

Mr Gale said: "I have been a children's programme maker for a considerable chunk of my life and I feel very strongly that children have a right to childhood and a right to be protected from bad things.

"But this is about real life - it is what actually happens.

"It is a film that I think a lot of the young people, not just in Margate where the film was made, but in other places will identify with.

Emin said she had made a "personal" film about teenage girls

"If it is going to have an impact it needs to be seen by people of that age."

Sue Clark, from the British Board of Film Classification, said: "We did offer the film distributor cuts to the film which would have amounted to about seven seconds.

"But they have chosen not to accept those and have accepted the 18 rating which is what they are entitled to do."

Emin said she did not want to change the film because she did not want to be dictated to.

She said there was a good moral story behind the film and it encourages women to become artists.

BBC Three commissioned the film which is due to be shown on the channel in December.