Steve Baker withdraws support for Braverman over grooming gangs rhetoric, says ally

Influential Brexiter backed home secretary’s leadership bid but is said to object to her singling out British-Pakistani men

Suella Braverman’s rhetoric about child sexual abuse and grooming gangs has cost her the support of an influential Conservative backer, Steve Baker, in a sign her hardline approach to culture war issues could hamper her chances of becoming Tory leader.

Baker, a Tory MP on the Brexiter right of the party, who is now a Northern Ireland minister, was Braverman’s de facto campaign manager when she stood to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and prime minister last summer.