The UK’s Education Secretary has urged Britons to have more children because of the “worrying repercussions” of a plummeting birth rate.

Bridget Phillipson said too many young people were put off having families because of the huge cost of housing and childcare.

She said her childcare plans would encourage people to have children who otherwise would have rejected the idea.

This stands in stark contrast to PM, Sir Keir Starmer, who last year said it was not his place to tell people how many children to have, or to set out a national “birth plan”.

In an article for The Telegraph, Ms Phillipson wrote: “I want more young people to have children, if they so choose.”

Several European leaders have called for their citizens to have bigger families to help grow their economies and deal with the pressures of ageing populations.

The fertility rate in England and Wales went down to 1.44 babies per woman in 2023 , its lowest value since records began in 1938 and well below the 2.1 needed to keep a population steady.

The lower birth rate means there will be fewer workers to care for the elderly and to keep public services adequately funded through their taxes.