Boris Johnson is being urged to apologise for describing the children of single mothers as “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate”. It prompted a blistering attack by Jo Swinson, who said that his “disgusting comments” came as little surprise.
The Tory leader came under fire after the unearthing of a column on the “appalling proliferation of single mothers” written for the Spectator in 1995.
Last night Ms Swinson, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “Boris Johnson has a track record of making remarks that pick on people less powerful than him, particularly women, and he must make a full, unreserved apology for this and all the other comments he has made which have demeaned people.”
Earlier she used a speech in London to attack Mr Johnson over his sense of “Etonian entitlement”. She accused him of not caring about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the jailed British-Iranian mother.
“Boris Johnson only cares about Boris Johnson,” she said. “He will do whatever it takes, sacrifice whatever or whoever is needed to get what he wants. His life has been about becoming prime minister. Not out of some burning desire to make people’s lives better, but out of some sense of Etonian entitlement, because it’s what people like him get to do.
“Boris Johnson doesn’t care about you and your family. Just take the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British mother wrongfully imprisoned, a small child devastated, separated from her mum.
“When he was talking about that case, his words would be used against Nazanin at her trial.”
Ms Swinson insisted Mr Johnson was not fit to be prime minister after “lying to the Queen” over temporarily suspending parliament. She said: “He lied when he said he would rather be dead in a ditch than ask for an extension to Article 50. Well, there might not be a ditch, but Boris Johnson has dragged the office of prime minister through the mud.”
In his Spectator article on single mothers Mr Johnson accused Labour and Tory governments of “failing to restrict the public emoluments available to this group”.
He stated that no one believed that “these girls make cold and detailed calculations of the benefits that might be available to them if they failed to take their Pill”. However, he wrote there was “some evidence that the prospect of more readily available housing is an enticement”.
He continued: “It must be generally plausible that if having a baby out of wedlock meant sure-fire destitution on a Victorian scale, young girls might indeed think twice about having a baby.”
Mr Johnson said that most blame rested with the “modern British male”. “If he is blue collar, he is likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless, and perhaps claiming to suffer from low self-esteem brought on by unemployment. If he is white collar, he is likely to be little better. It is no use blaming uppity and irresponsible women for becoming pregnant in the absence of a husband.
“J’accuse men of being responsible for a social breakdown which is costing us all, as taxpayers, £9.1 billion per year, and which is producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children who in theory will be paying for our pensions.”
Gingerbread, a charity that advocates on behalf of single parents, said that Mr Johnson had been wrong to use “thoughtless and inaccurate” stereotyping.
“Boris Johnson’s past description of single parents is wrong. His stereotyping is a thoughtless and inaccurate characterisation of almost two million people,” a spokesman said. A Conservative spokesman declined to comment.
