Leadson: Being a mum gives me the edge
Andrea Leadsom has said that being a mother makes her a better choice for British prime minister than Theresa May, because it means that she has ‘‘a very real stake’’ in the future of the country.
In comments showing how personal she is prepared to make the Tory leadership contest, Leadsom said in an interview with The Times that the home secretary must be ‘‘really sad’’ not to have children.
The energy minister and underdog in the fight for No 10 Downing St declared that May ‘‘possibly has nieces, nephews, lots of people. But I have children who are going to have children, who will directly be a part of what happens next’’.
May, 59, and husband Philip were unable to have children, and she hinted at their sadness in a recent interview.
Leadsom, 53, who has two sons and a daughter with husband Ben, said that being a mother meant that the future of Britain was more important to her.
‘‘Genuinely I feel that being a mum means you have a very real stake in the future of our country, a tangible stake.’’
She made it clear that she intended to highlight the difference over children in the campaign. Asked to contrast herself with May, she said: ‘‘I see myself as one, an optimist, and two, a member of a huge family, and that’s important to me. My kids are a huge part of my life.’’
May spoke about not having children last week. ‘‘Of course, we were both affected by it,’’ she said.
‘‘You see friends who now have grown-up children, but you accept the hand that life deals you. Sometimes things you wish had happened don’t, or there are things you wish you’d been able to do, but can’t. There are other couples in a similar position.’’
Yesterday, before learning of Leadsom’s comments, she called on her opponent to fight a clean campaign and stay within ‘‘acceptable’’ limits of political debate.
In her interview, Leadsom conceded that the subject of May’s lack of children could be painful for her opponent, but pressed on.
‘‘I am sure Theresa will be really sad
Genuinely I feel that being a mum means you have a very real stake in the future of our country, a tangible stake.
she doesn’t have children, so I don’t want this to be ‘Andrea has children, Theresa hasn’t’, because I think that would be really horrible.’’
However, she said that having children kept her focused.
‘‘It means you don’t want a downturn but, never mind, 10 years hence it will all be fine. My children will be starting their lives in that next 10 years, so I have a real stake in the next year, the next two.’’
She also suggested that motherhood meant she had more empathy than May. ‘‘I think when you are thinking about the issues that other people have, you worry about your kids’ exam results, what direction their careers are taking, what we are going to eat on Sunday.’’
One MP backing May said yesterday: Leadsom said that as soon as she became prime minister, she would block new arrivals from the European Union from staying permanently.
In a move likely to disappoint business, she dismissed Britain’s future with the EU single market. ‘‘The single market is in fact a European Union protectionist trade zone.’’
Meanwhile, a massive surge in hate crimes and related violence in Britain peaked in the days after the Brexit vote amid simmering community tensions.
A succession of attacks in the final fortnight of June took the number of reported incidents to more than 3000, a rise of 42 per cent compared with the same period last year, police data revealed yesterday.
The National Police Chiefs Council said the majority of complaints related to common assault, harassment and other violence.
There were 289 alleged offences on June 25, the day after the referendum result was confirmed – equivalent to 12 an hour.
Police in Norfolk said they were treating an arson attack in the early hours of Friday as a hate crime.
A brick was thrown through the window of a village shop, and the intruders started a fire.
The shop sells eastern European and Romanian produce.
A Polish family targeted in another arson attack in Plymouth overnight on Wednesday said they were scared to speak their language in the street. A fire was started in a shed next to the family home, and a threatening note written in newspaper cuttings was left warning the family to ‘‘go back’’.
In London, police were called to mosques and Islamic centres after they were sent packages containing white powder.
The Metropolitan Police said the powder was not noxious.
The head teacher of a junior school in Ely, Cambridgeshire has written to parents threatening to ban them from school grounds over the alleged racist abuse of eastern European parents and pupils.
Police forces were asked to file figures on hate crime on a weekly basis after reports to an online police portal indicated an increase.
Yesterday’s (Friday’s) figures show that 3,076 hate crimes and incidents were reported to police across England, Wales and Northern Ireland between June 16 and 30, up 915 on the previous year.