Parents must be held to account if their children are caught with guns or knives in school, MPs have warned.

The call follows revelations that eight guns and 16 knives had been found on pupils at council-run schools in the district in the past academic year.

Figures included one gun and six knives being seized from children at primary schools.

Keighley Conservative MP Kris Hopkins described the situation as “unacceptable”, and urged parents to take more responsibility for their children’s behaviour.

“Teachers and children have the absolute right to feel safe and be safe in the classroom but, as these figures highlight so graphically, this is often not the case,” he said.

“It is essential for children to be brought up in a home that encourages good behaviour and makes clear the difference between right and wrong. This is the sole responsibility of parents, who must be held accountable for their failures.”

Fellow Tory MP Philip Davies, whose Shipley constituency includes Culling-worth and Denholme, said: “It is important schools are given every support when they exclude pupils for behaviour that is unacceptable. I also believe parents of young children should be held far more accountable for their children.”

Councillor Imran Hussain, the council’s executive member for safer communities, said: “In serious cases, there are referrals to other agencies and, if there is a need, to the criminal justice process.

“There is some parental responsibility.”

Slightly more than 2,600 children were given permanent or fixed-term exclusions from council schools in 2012/13.