CULTURE Secretary Ben Bradshaw has accused the Conservatives of "demonising" young people in their claim that British society is "broken".

The Exeter MP hit out at Tory leader David Cameron's use of "isolated" incidents to brand all young people "bad".

In particular, Mr Cameron was criticised for his suggestion last month that the case of two brothers who attacked two other young children in Edlington, south Yorkshire, should prompt questions over what has gone wrong with British society.

The Tory leader spoke out in the wake of the boys' sentencing before launching his party's plans to "mend our broken society".

Mr Cameron said: "When we think about these terrible crimes, what has happened in Doncaster, I don't think it's right every time one of these events take place to say that it is just some isolated incident of evil that we should look away from and forget about."

But the repeated attempts by Conservatives to use the breakdown of social values for political gain has attracted the wrath of Labour politicians.

Tony Blair faced similar criticism when, as shadow home secretary, he made a speech on the death of toddler Jamie Bulger as a sign of social breakdown under the last Tory government.

Mr Bradshaw, speaking to a group of students, said: "I think there is unfair demonisation of young people. It's not fair when people like David Cameron use an isolated example – the terrible case of the children who tortured other children – to claim that Britain is broken, that we are a whole broke society and all young people are bad. That is not the case."

Mr Bradshaw, the Cabinet minister responsible for culture, media and sport, said there needed to be more coverage of the good things young people were doing.

"There are thousands of young people, being sports leaders, being community leaders, being leaders in music, in culture and making a positive contribution," he said.

"We need more coverage of that and less coverage of the minority of young people who are causing the problems."

Last week Prime Minister Gordon Brown came under pressure from Exeter teenager Rebecca Stokes who said teenagers too often have a "negative image – of yobs and hoodies".

At the Cabinet event held in Devon, Miss Stokes said many young people would like to have "more opportunities to make decisions and get our voices heard even more".

The PM said he wanted to create a "situation where at a local level, as well as a national level, young people have a say in the services that actually use".