Tories attack generation 'born to shameless parents' who take lessons from layabout TV character Frank Gallagher

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Parents are taking a feckless, layabout TV character as a role model for raising their children, Conservatives will warn today.

Too many mothers and fathers do not know what good parenting is and follow the example of Frank Gallagher, the father in Channel 4's dark comedy Shameless, Tory work and pensions spokesman Chris Grayling will say.

He will reject his party's earlier attacks on single mothers, insisting it should never again appear to be "at war with lone parents".

"There are millions of devoted lone parents delivering the care and nurture children need, often in challenging circumstances. We want to help lone parents build their lives, not stigmatise them," he will say in a speech in London.

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Shameless generation: The cast from C4's hit TV show

Mr Grayling will warn that the "inherited knowledge" of raising a child is swiftly lost from communities where 30-year-old grandparents and 45-year-old great-grandparents are "far from unusual".

"We live in a country where, in many places, Frank Gallagher-style parenting has become the norm and not the exception."

Following on from the Conservative green paper on welfare reform, he will call on the party to tackle "communities where parents no longer know what good parenting is, where children are largely left to their own devices as they grow up."