Susan Lilley, a single mother of two, said the weekly shop has become one of her biggest financial worries.

Thousands of women and girls passed through the secretive institutions, which were largely run by religious orders, from the 1920s until the 1990s.

On Tuesday, the Belfast Telegraph reported that a woman had alleged Donaldson had sexually assaulted her in 2016, and that she had made a senior member of the party aware of what happened.

High temperatures are expected for the rest of the week and over the coming weekend, increasing the prospect of an official heatwave.

The police had initially said they believed the 30-year-old asylum seeker was Somali but later said he was Sudanese.