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An outspoken Devon and Cornwall police officer had said he backs plans to strip convicted members of 'grooming gangs' of British citizenship and to deport them to Pakistan.

On Twitter, Sgt Harry Tangye shared a Guardian article about Home Secretary Sajid Javid defending the potential deportation of convicted grooming gang members to Pakistan, even if it risks them reoffending.

In his tweet, Sgt Tangye commented: "Completely behind you @sajidjavid thank you. Strong leadership. It is not for us to put our own citizens at risk because of the lacking of some other countries."

The Guardian article followed Mr Javid's appearance on Radio 4's Today programme. The Home Secretary - who has Pakistani heritage and was born in Rochdale where nine men were convicted for being part of a child sex abuse ring - told the the BBC it was "wrong to ignore" the ethnicity of grooming gangs.

He said that stripping offenders of British citizenship would happen only in extreme cases involving individuals with dual nationality. Mr Javid faced criticism for a tweet earlier this year referring to "sick Asian paedophiles".

British-Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie, who was guest-editing the Today programme, asked Mr Javid if he was concerned that his comments may have fuelled hate crimes. Mr Javid he said he was "very much aware of the need for politicians to be careful with their language".

But he said: "When it comes to gang-based child exploitation it is self-evident to anyone who cares to look that if you look at all the recent high-profile cases there is a high proportion of men that have Pakistani heritage."

Mr Javid said: "There could be - I'm not saying that there are - there could be some cultural reasons from the communities that these men came from that could lead to this kind of behaviour."

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He said: "When I'm asking my officials to go away and do research to look into the causes of gang-based child exploitation, then I want them to leave no stone unturned and to look at everything.

"For me to rule something out just because it would be considered sensitive would be wrong.

"If I had ignored it, or been seen to ignore it, that is exactly what I think extremists would like to see in this country. It would give them oxygen and I refuse to do that."

When asked about the decision to strip some offenders with dual citizenship of their British nationality and deport them to Pakistan, where there is no sex offenders' register and they may abuse more victims, Mr Javid replied: "I'm the British home secretary and my job is to protect the British public, to do what I think is right to protect the British public. That's my number one job."

He also said there was a "very high bar" on such decisions, which were usually only taken in cases of terrorism.

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