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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent

Jess Phillips and Iain Duncan Smith lead calls to criminalise ‘cuckooing’

A still from the TV series Happy Valley, which highlighted the issue of ‘cuckooing’.
A still from the TV series Happy Valley, which highlighted the issue of ‘cuckooing’. Photograph: Matt Squire/BBC/Lookout Point/AMC

“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.

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