New Tory vice chair says unemployed should have vasectomies to avoid UK 'drowning in wasters'
Ben Bradley, the Conservative MP for Mansfield, made the comments in a blog post in 2012.
A Conservative MP who was recently appointed as a party vice-chairman once stated that unemployed people should get vasectomies to avoid costing the taxpayer money by having children.
Ben Bradley was appointed Vice Chair of the Conservative Party in Prime Minister Theresa May's latest reshuffle last week.
As the party's 'youth tsar', the 28-year-old, seen as a rising star in the party, is tasked with attracting more young people to the party, but his controversial comments have caused anger with one Labour MP calling his words "repulsive".
The 28-year-old Mansfield MP wrote that the UK was "drowning in a vast sea of unemployed wasters" because people on benefits were having too many children.
In the now-deleted blog post, uncovered by BuzzFeed News Bradley said he backed work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith's proposal to introduce a benefit cap in 2012.
Bradley said: "It's horrendous that there are families out there that can make vastly more than the average wage, (or in some cases more than a bloody good wage) just because they have 10 kids. Sorry but how many children you have is a choice; if you can't afford them, stop having them! Vasectomies are free.
"There are hundreds of families in the UK who earn over £60,000 in benefits without lifting a finger because they have so many kids (and for the rest of us that's a wage of over £90,000 before tax!)."
The father-of-two unexpectedly became the first Conservative MP for Mansfield after defeating Labour's Alan Meale in 2017.
Bradley continued: "Families who have never worked a day in their lives having 4 or 5 kids and the rest of us having 1 or 2 means it's not long before we're drowning in a vast sea of unemployed wasters that we pay to keep! Iain Duncan Smith's cap proposal is spot on!"
Bradley apologised for the remarks, saying according to the Guardian: "I apologise for these posts. My time in politics has allowed me to mature and I now realise that this language is not appropriate."
But Labour's minister for voter engagement and youth affairs, Cat Smith MP, said: "These repulsive comments expose the Tories' disgraceful attitude to unemployed people.
"That they come from a man Theresa May chose as a vice-chair of her party speaks volumes. The nasty party is alive and well."