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Grieve Warns Of 'Ethnic Corruption' In UK

The Government's senior law officer, who warned politicians need to "wake up" to the problem of corruption in ethnic minority communities, has said he is "sorry" for causing any offence.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve said he was referring "mainly to the Pakistani community" in a newspaper interview, in which claimed minority communities "come from backgrounds where corruption is endemic".

His comments were criticised by political opponents and some within his own party, including one Tory MEP who branded the remarks "offensive".

Mr Grieve later issued a statement in which he said: "If I gave the impression that there is a particular problem in the Pakistani community, I was wrong. It is not my view.

"I believe the Pakistani community has enriched this country a great deal as I know full well from my extensive contact with the community over a number of years.

"I'm sorry if I have caused any offence."

Mr Grieve, the MP for Beaconsfield, told the Daily Telegraph that many people come the UK "because of the opportunities that they get".

But he added: "They also come from societies where they have been brought up to believe you can only get certain things through a favour culture.

"One of the things you have to make absolutely clear is that that is not the case and it's not acceptable."

Asked if he was referring to the Pakistani community in his remarks, Mr Grieve told the newspaper: "Yes, it's mainly the Pakistani community, not the Indian community. I wouldn't draw it down to one. I'd be wary of saying it's just a Pakistani problem."

Mr Grieve highlighted electoral fraud as an area of concern, echoing comments made in 2010 by senior Tory Baroness Warsi.

Lady Warsi told the New Statesman magazine there were "at least three seats where we lost, where we didn't gain the seat, based on electoral fraud" and said the problems were "predominantly within the Asian community".

Labour MP Khalid Mahmood told Sky News accused Mr Grieve of political point scoring.

"What's his statistical evidence?" he said.

Questioning why the Attorney General had made his comments now, he added: "Is it because it's coming up to the general election and because the Tory party wants another immigration issue or community-based issue ... to move on?"

Shabana Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, said Mr Grieve had made a "wild extrapolation" based on "a few flimsy facts", while Tory MEP Sajjad Karim described his comments as "offensive, divisive ... (and) ill-advised".

However, Grant Shapps, the chairman of the Conservative party, said: "The Government's absolutely clear that we never want to pinpoint individual communities.

"Corruption needs to be rooted out wherever it occurs in this country but we think this is something that needs to be tackled everywhere, not in a specific community."