‘Dystopian soundbites’: Tory minister under fire for suggesting tax cuts for women who have more children

Maya Oppenheim
·4 min read
Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Women’s Budget Group, which analyses government policy from a gender perspective, argued the ‘assumption’ that ‘women’s primary purpose is to have babies is a damaging one’ (PA Wire)
Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Women’s Budget Group, which analyses government policy from a gender perspective, argued the ‘assumption’ that ‘women’s primary purpose is to have babies is a damaging one’ (PA Wire)

A Conservative Party minister has been accused of reeling off “right-wing dystopian soundbites” for suggesting a policy to encourage women to have more children to boost the UK labour force.

Campaigners condemned the policy, which an unnamed Tory MP suggested to The Sun on Sunday in a weekend story headlined “Bonk for Britain”.

The minister argued the policy would boost the UK economy by following the lead of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s far-right populist nationalist prime minister.

“Look at the labour shortages we are suffering from,” the “Top Tory” told the tabloid. “We need to have more children. The rate keeps falling. Look at Hungary – they cut taxes for mothers who have more children.”

Kate Osborne, a Labour MP who sits on the Women and Equalities Committee, told The Independent the proposal was “farcical” as she argued that “women’s bodies” are not possessions of the state.

Mr Orbán, who has been called “Trump before Trump” by the former president’s ally Steve Bannon, has proposed “a comprehensive agreement with Hungarian women” to bear more children. The policy the UK minister is referring to was unveiled by Mr Orbán in 2019 to curb immigration levels and uplift the country’s birth rate - with the measure comprising a lifetime income tax exemption for mothers of four or more children.

The leader, who has earned the nickname “Viktator”, also promotes debt-free education for women but only if they had at least three children.

Ms Osborne, MP for Jarrow, hit out at the Tory MP’s policy suggestion as she warned “women’s bodies do not belong to the state, and are certainly not a solution to the current economic crisis that this Conservative government has caused”.

She added: “The government do not care about our kids - millions of the children we do have in the UK are trapped in poverty. They don't care about women and have no plans to tackle the gender health gap, gender pay gap or how women are treated by society.”

The MP called for the government to “get a grip of the spiralling economic crisis” rather than pushing out “right-wing dystopian soundbites”.

Ms Osborne said: “They could take action on any of the issues that impact on women's lives every day from childcare, to social care to the crisis in maternity care and our NHS. They won't - they seem more interested in showing how incompetent they are with increasingly farcical proposals by the day.”

Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Women's Budget Group, which analyses government policy from a gender perspective, argued the “assumption” that “women’s primary purpose is to have babies is a damaging one”.

She added: “The underlying motivation behind this is deeply troubling, which is the assumption that immigration is a bad thing for the UK when the UK has historically been a nation of immigrants, from the Romans onwards and that has made our economy and society richer. We benefited from that.”

Dr Stephenson noted there is an issue of women not having children, or having as many children as they may otherwise want, due to “the huge cost of childcare”.

She called for free universal childcare, a housing system which delivers affordable homes, flexible working, as well as policies that divide care between parents to tackle the issue as she warned a “minor tax break won’t make a difference”.

Her comments come after a recent study found six in 10 women who have had an abortion say the cost of childcare in the UK put them off pregnancy. The report, carried out by campaign group Pregnant then Screwed, found almost one in five women said childcare costs were the main reason they decided to terminate a pregnancy.

Researchers polled 1,630 women who had an abortion in the past five years and discovered the situation was far starker for Black women. Three in four Black women said childcare costs were behind their decision to have an abortion, while the same proportion of single parents said the same.

Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has found the UK had one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world.

Joeli Brearley, chief executive of Pregnant Then Screwed, said: “Exactly what incentive is there to bonk for Britain when childcare costs have increased by 44 per cent in the last ten years?

“When one in nine pregnant women are kicked out of the workplace, when statutory maternity pay is 47 per cent of the minimum wage and mothers suffer a pay penalty so that by the time her first child is 12 years old, her hourly pay rate is 33 per cent behind a mans.

“Offering tax cuts to mums for having kids is completely pointless and actually just insulting when we have the second most expensive childcare system, and the third worst maternity pay in Europe.”

She argued that in order “to boost the economy we need to look after the mothers who are paying the price of our broken system today.”