In all the sound and fury of the election, annual statistics land unnoticed. Yet these grim Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures are the best benchmark for what has happened to the country during the Conservative years. Infant mortality has risen: more babies are dying, and more older children are dying, too, from causes including abuse, neglect and suicide. The long-term trend in infant deaths has been downwards, as you would expect. But not recently in the UK. The Nuffield Foundation reported in 2021 that Britain’s rate of infant deaths was 30% above the median across EU countries.
According to OECD data, the UK ranks 30th out of 48 countries for infant deaths. The risk rises for mothers who are poor, black, young or living in deprived areas. Last year, child deaths in England rose by 8%, and more than a third of these were officially judged “avoidable”, bringing an outburst from Camilla Kingdon, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. She explained: “The clear driver is rising child poverty. Figures such as these in a nation as rich as ours are unforgivable.”
