Tory MP who said benefits claimants should have vasectomies will keep job

Joe Watts

Updated 17 January 2018 at 9:12 am

The Tory Vice Chairman for Youth said on a personal blog six year ago that people on welfare should stop having children if they could not afford them: Getty

A Conservative MP will keep his job as Vice Chairman for Youth despite anger at his suggestion that benefit claimants should have vasectomies.

A Downing Street source indicated the Prime Minister believed it is sufficient that Ben Bradley has apologised for the comments made six years ago, but Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman argued it confirmed the Conservatives as “the nasty party”.

After Mr Bradley, 28, was named in the role it emerged that he had said people on welfare should stop having children if they could not afford them, also suggesting sterilisation.

A spokesman said Theresa May had not been aware of the comments before the appointment, but confirmed Mr Bradley would keep his job.

He added: “Clearly Mr Bradley has apologised for those comments. The PM thinks it’s right that he did so.

“I would just note that I think he was 22 at the time that he made them and has himself said that he believes that his work and the start of his career in politics has demonstrated to him why those views are wrong.”

After the post on the personal blog, consbradders32, was highlighted by BuzzFeed News, it was deleted.

It read: “Sorry but how many children you have is a choice; if you can't afford them, stop having them! Vasectomies are free.

“Families who have never worked a day in their lives having four or five kids and the rest of us having one or two means it's not long before we're drowning in a vast sea of unemployed wasters that we pay to keep!”

Mr Bradley, who buoyed the Tory faithful with his speech ahead of Ms May’s at last year’s conference, said he had matured since posting the blog in 2012 and was sorry for the comments.

Bradley says he has matured since making the comments in 2012 (PA)

But a spokesman for the Leader of the Opposition said the remarks were “deeply shocking”.

He Added: “[They] confirm once again the Tory party’s very thinly veiled character as the nasty party, as a party that has built into it vicious attitudes towards disabled people, unemployed people, disadvantaged people throughout society.”