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A Tory minister has suggested some British communities are too “selfish” to look after their elderly parents.

And he apparently suggested mobile phones should be banned to combat society’s growing “obsession” with social media and cyber bullying.

Bracknell MP Dr Philip Lee told a fringe event at Conservative Party Conference that families had started to “outsource the care of our parents”, and asked: “Why have we gone down that path?”

The GP and Justice minister said Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities are more likely to look after each other in later life.

"When I used to do (GP) visits, I would go into residential nursing homes and I would rarely meet a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu. It's uncomfortable for me.

"But in those communities it's a responsibility that they look after their own, that they care for each other at different stages of our lives," he said, according to the Mail.

"And we don't do that. We are outsourcing the care of our parents. Why have we gone down that path - is it because we have become a bit selfish?"

The MP for Bracknell said later on Twitter that his comments had been "deliberately manipulated to give a wholly false impression".

He went on to say society had become increasingly “atomised”, and had failed to get to grips with cyberbullying and an obsession with social media.

He said: “Our society is quite sick and no one really wants to talk about it.”

He added: “We haven’t really thought through the impact of social media on society. Why is it that we ban cocaine but not mobile phones? We need to take the problem seriously.”