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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Peter Walker Political correspondent

No 10 denies using dog-whistle politics in grooming gangs crackdown

Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman
Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman visited Rochdale on Monday, the site of a long-running case of the sexual abuse of girls by gangs. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Downing Street has denied using dog-whistle generalisations to launch a crackdown on grooming gangs, after the NSPCC and experts warned that framing the issue as one based on ethnicity could hamper efforts to tackle it.

After Suella Braverman said “almost all” members of such gangs were British Pakistani men who held attitudes incompatible with British values, critics pointed to a 2020 Home Office report that concluded it was impossible to say if any particular ethnic group was disproportionately represented in such offending.

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