Matt Goodwin wants to tax people who don’t have kids

Matt Goodwin is facing even more scorn, this time for attacking women. In a 2023 blog post unearthed by the Independent, the Reform candidate for Gorton and Denton proposed that people who don’t have children should be taxed extra. What’s worse, this was specifically meant as a punishment.

Reform pick: Matt Goodwin, Zionist, book eater, and woman hater

On his Substack, Goodwin said:

British family is imploding.

He went on to say that:

The collapse of the family has not only become unavoidable but is having very real and very negative effects on the country around us.

His solution to this was a raft of proposals that would create “a pro-family culture”. These would include a national day to celebrate families and getting the king to send a telegram to families when they have a third child. For some fucking reason.

He also wanted “the importance of the family” to be represented in the school curriculum. This was alongside making sure British families were “prioritised” in the building of new houses. He also wanted to remove income tax for women with two or more children, presumably because he sees them as having done their duty.

Most bizarre of all was his proposal on child benefits:

Switching child benefit to incentivise families to have more children.

Which is hilarious when Reform is so opposed to lifting the two-child cap. Though not if you ask the two Reform MPs who accidentally voted for it.

Reform putting women in danger

But then came his plan to not only push reproduction but to punish those who don’t have children:

 Introducing a ‘negative child benefit’ tax for those who don’t have offspring

More worryingly, is that Reform agrees with him. A Reform spokesperson told the Huffington Post:

Of course, Goodwin is as misguided as ever. Many could potentially be pressured into having kids and trapped in abusive relationships. It would mean that women are seen as only baby machines and not free to have their own lives or careers.

Deputy leader of Labour, Lucy Powell, expressed her disgust at this idea in the Independent:

Matthew Goodwin’s big idea is so ludicrous, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is something out of The Handmaid’s Tale. It would punish millions of women and strip them of their basic dignity to choose.

Infertile women are not good enough

But that’s only the ones that physically can have children.

I can’t imagine the pain that this would cause to those who are struggling with fertility. On top of the emotional and physical toll this puts on you will be financial pressures. For those of us who are infertile, it sends one message. You are not good enough and deserve to be punished for failing as a woman.

I had an elective hysterectomy in 2017 after over a decade of pain. I chose my own health over a condition that was making me want to die, for the sake of one day having a baby. Many would call my decision selfish, but I frankly don’t give a fuck what people who would rather I were in pain think of me.

As much as I loathe a Handmaid’s Tale comparison, this is very apt here. In the novel, working-class women who are infertile are cast out of society. As they have no purpose in a society that values families over all else.

Reform hates women, but we already know this

Goodwin’s comments are abhorrently cruel and show just how much society hates people who don’t have children. But Reform supporting it is a sign of just how much Christian pro-life values are not so quietly creeping into the UK.

By seeing us as just baby machines, we are telling anyone who can’t have a baby, or chooses not to, that they do not belong in society. But Reform is also telling voters plainly that they don’t actually give a fuck about women. Plainly put Reform will be dangerous for women, and they’re already proudly telling us that.

Featured image via the Canary