Kemi Badenoch, please listen to single parents

Posted 24 October 2024

Gingerbread’s director of policy and campaigns, Sarah Lambert, reacts to Kemi Badenoch’s recent comments about single parents:

‘In an interview published in the Sunday Times at the weekend, Conservative leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch MP talked about the importance of family. She talked about how families come in many different shapes and sizes, and about the need for both parents to contribute financially to the upbringing of their children. These ideas were welcome and will resonate with many single parents.

However, the Times interview highlighted that a high proportion of male prisoners did not grow up with their fathers. This was mentioned without any evidence of a causal link or identification of wider factors at play. We think this was incredibly unhelpful.

There’s a real risk that the publication of these kind of comments, with no context or evidence, can lead to more negative and stigmatising attitudes about children from single-parent families.

There are 2 million single parents in the UK today – a quarter of all families with dependent children. And they’re doing an incredible job, raising their children with love, patience and dedication.    

At Gingerbread we regularly review the evidence and carry out our own research with and about single-parent families. We know, for example, that 66% of single parents are in work. But despite this, children in single-parent families are much more likely to grow up in poverty than children in couple-parent households.

‘In fact, the evidence largely shows that any poorer outcomes for children are due to greater levels of financial insecurity and poverty among single parent households.’

Listening to single parents

Like so many of our political leaders, Kemi Badenoch claims to want to support families to thrive. If that’s the case, they need to listen to what single parents are saying.

At Gingerbread, we’ve been working with a group of single-parent campaigners since before the General Election. They’ve helped us to put together our manifesto for change. And they’ve told us – loud and clear – that the system needs reform to help single parents to be financially secure.

‘In practice, this means reforming childcare, incentivising employers to create high quality flexible and part-time roles, reform of the child maintenance service (CMS) and ensuring we have a social security system that is a genuine safety net.’

We’ve recently outlined how the autumn Budget can help single-parent families, and we’re waiting to see if the new government can deliver. In the meantime, we’d love to invite Kemi Badenoch to find out more about the challenges single parents are facing and overcoming every day.

At Gingerbread, we’re building a movement of single parents to speak up and campaign for the changes which will ensure all single-parent families can thrive. Will you join us?