The disagreement among Tories on universal childcare

The author of the Universal Childcare Act rejected the childcare cuts backed by the majority of her Tory colleagues.

THE Universal Childcare Act has cast a long shadow on politics in the last year. This legislation, which would roll out a state subsidised and operated network of regional nurseries in England from 2021, was proposed by u/Amber_Rudd while the Tories were an opposition force during the Sunrise government. Naturally, this scheme came under intense scrutiny and opposition by the Libertarians who decried the policy is nothing but waste. While implemented in the last parliament under the Clegg government, when u/Yukub took over as leader he made a clear attempt to reform the Tory policy on childcare and move to a means-tested model. This culminated in the government-backed Childcare Enhancement Bill (CEB), slowly making its way through parliament.

The CEB was promoted by its architect u/BrexitGlory, the then Education Secretary, as being merely a measure in line with past Tory policies on childcare access. Rather than a political u-turn, this so-called “Change for Childcare” was set to be a development with clear continuity to the past. Indeed, in the opening speech for the introduction of the bill, u/BrexitGlory said as much:

”During the Prime Minister’s leadership campaign he gave a speech outlining what our approach to childcare reform should be. He made a number of good points. He was right to say that the Universal Childcare Act was a fantastic piece of legislative work. He was right to recognise the need for some government intervention.

Above all, he was absolutely right to say that improvements can be made. As legislators and policy makers we must do what we believe is right for the people of this great country. We must lead the way in illuminating the best path. That is what this government has set out to do with this piece of legislation.

The aims of the UCA were simple and just. We aimed to aid those who struggled to pay their high childcare costs. We sought to offer a helping hand to parents back into work. And we set out to close the opportunity gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged, with crucial intervention in early years education.”

”You see, the Conservative party policy on childcare for decades and decades has been “to improve it”. This legislation does just that, no ifs or buts, this improves childcare just as the Prime Minister said we will do. When conservatives say, Conservatives do.”

Such rhetoric was clearly an attempt to distance the CEB as being a stark rupture from the past and instead paint the legislation as falling in line with past Tory endeavours on childcare (how many of those have there been anyway?). While Tories attempted to quietly dismantle the Universal Childcare Act’s provisions with little fanfare with the CEB, others took a more sceptical line from the start. Former Deputy Leader of that party, u/LeChevalierMal-Fait, even described the legislation as being “a high G-force u-turn of the sort we have not seen the like of in British politics for many years” during the debate. Yet such figures were always from the outside of the Tory party rather than from within; no Tory vocally opposed their shift at that time.

Yet this period of party unity on childcare has seemingly ended. The original architect of the Tory universal childcare scheme, u/Amber_Rudd, has voted against the CEB and stood up against the Tory whip when the bill last went to division in the Commons. u/Amber_Rudd had, until that point, served as the minister responsible for overseas development at Westminster and headed to the backbenches. Now the ex minister has been reappointed to the Conservative shadow cabinet.

This move raises serious questions about the way the CEB was developed. If the Universal Childcare Act was so ‘fantastic’, one surely has to wonder why the person who developed that legislation could not, in good faith, endorse the change. After all, someone with such talent and knowledge about childcare policy would probably endorse genuine improvements, especially improvements coming from one’s own party. Beyond this, if the CEB was a measure drafted in a spirit of supposed continuity, why is it that the author of the original universal childcare scheme seems to doubt its ability to improve the provision of childcare in England compared to the status quo? These questions are now all open as the CEB is facing the House of Lords; the childcare issue that has lingered in politics for the past year is not likely to go away soon even with the Tories out of government for the time being.