Have more children? If only it were that simple, minister

Bridget Phillipson has come up with a canny idea to get Britain’s “worrying” birth rate back up - have more kids.

- VICTORIA RICHARDS

As official data showed fertility rates in England and Wales dropped to 1.44 children per woman in 2023, the education secretary warned of the “worrying repercussions” posed by a decline in birth rates, saying she wants “more young people to have children, if they so choose”.

To which we can only say: if only it were that simple, minister. “Have more children” may have a nice ring to it (though it does smack a little of the weird pro-natalist couple Simone and Malcolm Collins, responsible for telling Donald Trump how to up the birth rate) - but who can afford to start or expand a family, in this economy?

Phillipson did admit that she realises people are having fewer children as a consequence of higher costs of living, but her sentimental platitudes - she told The Telegraph falling birth rates were not only a concerning trend but one which “tells a story, heartbreakingly, about the dashed dreams of many families” - ring hollow to the pragmatists amongst us.

Where Phillipson falls down is in stopping short of providing a real and actionable solution - like slashing the cost of childcare for all children, whenever parents need it.

At the moment, working parents can access 15 hours of free childcare for children aged nine months to two years old (this is increasing to 30 hours from September 2025). Meanwhile, all three and four-year-olds get 15 hours of free childcare per week - with some families eligible for 30 hours if both parents are working.

Single parents, meanwhile,