Ex-MP and key Kemi Badenoch ally says Tories had been incorrect to broaden free childcare

The former Tory Party Deputy Chair for Women, Rachel Maclean, says the previous Conservative government was wrong to expand free childcare to all under-fives.

The ex-MP who was a chair of Kemi Badenoch’s successful campaign said she thinks it was wrong for the state to think they ‘can do it all.’ She told BBC’s Politics Live: “I actually don’t think it was [right]. I think we should talk more about families and encouraging responsibility of families.”

She added: “Combining work with children is very hard but it’s about the right way of doing it. I don’t think the state can do all of it and I think we should empower women and parents and fathers as well to do more, as much as they possibly can.”

Ex-PM Rishi Sunak, 44, expanded free childcare for thousands of working parents this year to encourage them to return to work. From this April, parents with two-year-olds can receive 15 hours of free childcare.

Parents whose children are over nine months old are also allowed 15 hours of free childcare from September. The expansion also meant that children under five years old could get 30 hours of free childcare from September 2025.

Maclean, 59, who was sacked by Sunak in the House of Commons recently in July’s general election. She continued: ‘I’ve got four children and I’ve got two grandchildren now, so this is not an abstract thing for me and my family. Combining work with children is very hard but it’s about the right way of doing it.

“I don’t think the state can do all of it and I think we should empower women and parents and fathers as well to do more, as much as they possibly can,” she added.

Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, 46, the party’s education spokesperson, called out Maclean’s out-of-touch comments: “Another Dark Ages perspective on childcare from a Conservative Party that is hopelessly out-of-touch with working families.

“Many parents are working flat-out to make ends meet – more now than ever thanks to the cost-of-living crisis that Rachel Maclean’s Conservative colleagues helped cause,” she continued.

“Families need more access to flexible, affordable childcare – not less. Kemi Badenoch must clarify immediately if she agrees with these comments. I look forward to her response.”

The new Conservative party leader has yet to comment on Maclean’s views. This comes just a month after Ms Badenoch, 44, came under fire for her out-of-touch comments about maternity leave.

In an interview with Times Radio, she said families need to have “more personal responsibility” when asked about those who can’t afford to have a baby. Ms Badenoch continued: “There was a time when there wasn’t any maternity pay and people were having more babies”

Ms Badenoch told Times Radio that statutory maternity pay was “a function of tax.” She added: “Tax comes from people who are working, we’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive.”