An ex-Reform candidate who previously suggested people without children should pay more tax has now said they could pay more for their mortgages too.
Matt Goodwin, who was defeated by Green MP Hannah Spencer in the Gorton and Denton by-election earlier this year, hit out at The Independent’s reporting, which revealed he previously suggested imposing a “negative child benefit tax” on “those who don’t have offspring” – a proposal that prompted comparisons to dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale.
The Independent also revealed that Mr Goodwin called for women and young girls to be given a “biological reality” check, as he gave his views on how Britain should tackle its impending “fertility crisis”.
In his latest post on his Substack blog, he accused the “left-wing media” of making a “false claim to try and derail our campaign among women voters”.
“If there’s one thing the liberal class love more than debating ideas, it’s inventing arguments their opponents never made,” he said.
“Such as the argument that I want to live in a world where women who have no children pay much higher rates of tax. That was the charge levelled against me during the Gorton and Denton by-election.”
While he denied wanting to tax people without children more, the very same blog post saw him suggest they should pay more for their mortgages than those with two or more children.
“Personally, I would not go as far as suggesting that we should have a higher tax for women who do not have children,” he said.
“This was merely one of several ideas that were put forward by a leading demographer and which I merely said we should debate.
“But what I do think we should introduce is sweeping tax allowances and other benefits for women who do choose to have children – especially British women and families who choose to have more than two children.”
He added: “I’d like to go even further. Why not prioritise British families that have more than two children when it comes to housing and giving them far more favourable mortgage rates, for example?”
The former academic – who faced criticism earlier this year after using AI to help write his latest book – insisted that “as the son of a single mother, and father of a daughter, I will always be among the first to advocate for women’s rights and choice”.
“Women must always be able to choose what they do with their own bodies. End of story,” he added.
“I am also intimately aware that some women who desperately want to have children struggle with infertility. I want to be clear how much I empathise with those women. Because I really do.”
Responding to his remarks, Labour Party chair Anna Turley told The Independent: “Matt Goodwin’s proposal of higher mortgage rates for women with fewer than two children is shocking, but sadly not surprising.”
She claimed Reform has “form for this kind of thing”, pointing to Reform’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election.
Rob Kenyon “made vile comments about women, admitted to being a sexist and refused to apologise”, she said, insisting that the party is “not on the side of women”.
Mr Kenyon faced major backlash during the Makerfield campaign after a series of now-deleted comments he made about women online resurfaced, including a suggestion women can’t “ref, drive or give directions”.
It was revealed earlier this year that Mr Goodwin also used his blog to suggest that people who don’t have children should be taxed extra.
While such a tax would financially impact both men and women, it would disproportionately affect women, putting pressure on them to become pregnant to protect both themselves and their partners from the levy.
The Independent also reported on an unearthed clip from Mr Goodwin’s personal YouTube channel in November 2024, which showed the former academic warning that “many women in Britain are having children much too late in life”.
In the video, Mr Goodwin argued: “We need to explain and educate to young children, the next generation, the severity of this crisis.
“We need to also explain to young girls and women the biological reality of this crisis. Many women in Britain are having children much too late in life, and they would prefer to have children much earlier on.”
In a separate clip, taken from a podcast he recorded with controversial right-wing philosopher Jordan Peterson, Mr Goodwin also appeared to agree with the host’s claim that universities have become hotbeds of “politically correct authoritarianism” because they are full of “childless women”.
When approached by The Independent, Mr Goodwin accused this publication of “another lazy hit job”, adding: “The principle that the state should give benefits to families with more children is already established in Britain and elsewhere.
“What I am suggesting is that instead of giving these benefits to anybody we give them specifically to British families with larger numbers of children, much like France, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Poland, and Denmark already give benefits to their own people.”