A couple and their seven-year-old Gaelic-speaking son due to be deported from the Highlands next week have been offered a stay of execution.

The Home Office said that the Brain family, originally from Australia, were at “no imminent in risk of immediate deportation".

Earlier this week Kathryn Brain received a job offer from a local distillery.

At the time Alex Salmond described the move as a possible “game changer” but warned that as the post was temporary it would require the discretion of UK ministers.

Mrs Brain and her husband Gregg and son Lachlan moved to Scotland in 2011 on Mrs Brain’s student visa.

They had intended to switch to a two-year poststudy work visa after that, but the scheme was cancelled.