“Cuckooing” in the homes of vulnerable people by drug gangs should become a criminal offence, according to a call from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) thinktank which has gathered cross-party backing.
Labour MP Jess Phillips and the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith are leading calls for the practice – which was spotlighted in the BBC series Happy Valley – to be criminalised as part of an overhaul of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act.