Rishi Sunak refuses to back Braverman’s widely criticised claim about racial nature of grooming gangs – as it happened

Rishi Sunak during a visit to the UK Atomic Energy Authority in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, last week. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

5.16pm BST

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4.50pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Rishi Sunak has refused to back Suella Braverman’s claim that the men in grooming gangs are mostly British-Pakistani. (See 1.01pm.) But, as he launched a crackdown on grooming gangs, he did claim that “political correctness” had played a role in part in protecting these gangs (because the police were worried about being accused of being racist if they acted against the perpetrators, he implied – see 8.53am.) As Peter Walker reports, the NSPCC and experts on grooming gangs have warned ministers against framing the issue as one based on ethnicity, warning that this could hamper efforts to tackle a crime that a Home Office report said was carried out predominantly by white men.

• Anger among teachers in England over pay and school funding is hardening after what union leaders hailed as an “unprecedented” rejection of the government’s latest offer.

• Downing Street has conceded that “new processes” brought in after Brexit played a role in days of chaotic travel queues at Dover, one day after Suella Braverman, the home secretary, was accused of denying it was a factor.

• GB News is being investigated over a possible breach of impartiality rules, after two senior Conservative MPs interviewed the chancellor before the spring budget on its channel.

• The UK’s membership of a Pacific trade agreement will result in more deforestation overseas, endanger animal welfare and “make a mockery” of the government’s environmental commitments, campaigners have said.

Rishi Sunak with Suella Braverman in Rochdale today. Photograph: Phil Noble/PA