Baroness O’Grady of Upper Holloway (Lab)

My thanks, too, to my noble friend for opening this debate. My Lords, it seems ironic that some of the very same politicians who framed the falling birth rate as a crisis have also pledged to bring back the two-child benefit cap. Meanwhile, the far right peddles racist conspiracy theories about white European populations being replaced and proclaims that having babies is a woman’s patriotic duty. In contrast, my starting point is women’s choice. Most of us do not want a Handmaid’s Tale-style future, with the state pressurising women into motherhood. Instead, we should celebrate how better education and access to contraception and abortion services has helped women take more control over reproductive choices. In a free society, it is not for government to dictate whether we have children or how many. But government policies can either support citizens’ choices or push them beyond reach. Ordinary people have suffered years of austerity and pressure on wages, and they were told that they had no right to expect job security, let alone a secure home. I pay tribute to this Government’s Employment Rights Act and Renters’ Rights Act, which guarantee a more stable life, including for those who want to start a family. Policies that recognise that families come in all shapes and sizes are important too. A quarter of families are headed by a single parent, who are overwhelmingly mothers—I was one of them—so action on equal pay and childcare really counts. The paid parental leave system, which this Government have inherited, is among the worst in Europe. That makes it harder for new mothers to stay in the workforce, or relegates them to second-class status, holding back economic growth. New fathers and other parents get a raw deal too. While many employers top up statutory paternity pay, blue-collar workers are much more likely to rely on the statutory rate, and self-employed dads get nothing at all. The UK’s parental leave system is still rooted in the 1950s idea of the sole male breadwinner and emotionally detached fatherhood—a model of masculinity that only the so-called populist right still aspires to. All the evidence is that women and men want to share parenthood more equally, and giving new babies more time with their parents is one of the best forms of early years investment. Change is urgent. Similarly, living longer lives should be seen as a measure of human progress. It becomes a crisis only if we fail to put in place policies necessary to support a happy old age, not least tackling the UK’s stark class inequality in healthy life expectancy. The last thing we need is divisive proposals that stoke intergenerational wars. That brings me to the recent report from the Centre for Social Justice, Baby Bust. It argues that “too many retirees” believe that “they have ‘paid for’ their pension rather than understanding that it is funded by current taxpayers”. The centre could have usefully added that this generation of taxpayers has an interest in protecting a decent state pension, because one day they will claim it too. The state pension is, in fact, a prime example of intergenerational solidarity. Reading the report, you might also think that the UK’s state pension provision is generous. It is not. UK spending on state pensions as a percentage of GDP is well below the OECD average. Of course, we must prioritise economic growth to support an ageing society. Many argue that technology is the answer, and it has been calculated that the introduction of AI alone will deliver multibillion-dollar productivity gains. I would welcome the Minister’s views on ways to ensure that those gains are shared fairly, and on how big tech can pay its fair share towards the decent public goods and services that our ageing population has earned.