People should be having more children rather than the UK relying on immigration to deal withan ageing population, Kemi Badenoch has suggested.
The Conservative leader said the UK needed to answer the question of how we “make sure we can deal with [an] ageing society, people not having enough children”.
She said it was not the right option to rely on immigration which is “making things worse; it is making us all poorer”.
Asked during the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme whether she thought people should be having more children, she said: “I do, but that’s a personal choice. But we have to look at the demographics of our country. We cannot solve it with immigration.”
She said trying to “fix” the problem of an ageing population with immigration “had not worked” when governments had tried it in the past.
Her focus on the birthrate was challenged on the same programme byJustine Greening, a former Conservative education secretary, who said: “I heard Kemi talking about people having more children twice. We’ve got enough children. Let’s develop the ones we’ve got in our schools and look at how we can make sure gaps don’t open up in the education system as they already do.
“There are some really practical questions facing the Conservative party and I think more fundamentally the question of what is the point of the Conservative party now. If we can’t find an answer to that I think we shouldn’t assume things won’t continue to get worse.”
Badenoch’s position suggests she could develop policy solutions to encourage women to have more children. So far, since becoming leader last year, Badenoch has presented barely any policy, but she has said she wants to come up with honest solutions to long-term problems facing the country.
Hungary’s rightwing populist government has exempted mothers from income tax, while in South Korea, new parents are paid a monthly stipend.
The birthrate fell to its lowest level for many decades last year, with women in England and Wales having an average of 1.44 children between 2022 and 2023.
Only 591,072 babies were born in 2023, fewer than in any year since 1977 and a fall of more than 14,000 on the previous year,figures from the Office for National Statisticsshowed.
However, Badenoch has previously suggested that maternity pay has “gone too far” before backtracking on the remarks amid a backlash. In September last year,she said maternity pay is “excessive”and people should exercise “more personal responsibility”.
During the leadership contest, she said she was fighting for the principle of the state doing less, as “the answer cannot be let the government help people to have babies”.
She subsequently clarified her remarks, saying: “Contrary to what some have said, I clearly said the burden of regulation on businesses had gone too far … of course I believe in maternity pay!”
After that, she said there were “things that we have to do to make sure that we make life comfortable for those people who are … starting families” and suggested that some people are scared to start families.
Badenoch’s position on the birthrate appears to beshared by Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary and her leadership rival, who said last year: “We want to have a higher birthrate as a country. With an ageing society it is critically important.
“There are lots of reasons we’re not unique as a country for that. It is across the western world. The things that government can do is improve childcare, and above all housing, because there’s a massive link between how late people eventually settle down and the ability to have kids.”