Rishi Sunak has come under attack for shelving plans for a major childcare shake-up designed to curb spiralling costs for parents.
The Prime Minister is said to have quietly dropped his predecessor Liz Truss's idea for "big bang" reforms, which were due to include increasing free childcare support by 20 hours a week and scrapping staff to child ratios.
But the plan has been kicked into the long grass, with the scale of plans being considered expected to be much smaller, according to the Telegraph.
Labour branded the decision "feeble", while several Tories expressed alarm at delays to reform for the crisis-hit sector.
The UK has some of the highest childcare costs in the world, according to the OECD, leaving some parents struggling to afford to return to work.
Meanwhile, nurseries have been struggling to cope with rising energy, food and staffing costs. The Early Alliance says 4,000 early years providers were forced to shut last year alone.
Downing Street insisted Mr Sunak believes in childcare reforms and work is ongoing.
A No10 source said: “Childcare and the early years are very important for the PM.
"He believes education is the closest we have to a silver bullet for making people’s lives better, and he is working hard with ministers on improving childcare and early years provision for the benefit of children and parents.”
But Labour hit back, with a source telling the Mirror: “The PM’s decision to ditch childcare reform shows just how feeble he is.
“He’s too weak to stand up to the private schools’ lobby and tax-dodging non-doms, too weak to stand up to his backbenchers and too weak to stand up to his Chancellor over the investment required to fix the Tories’ broken childcare system."
Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is understood to be drawing up plans for a major expansion of free childcare worth around £6billion a year.
Labour is considering offering parents more free hours as a key plank of its manifesto, multiple sources told the Mirror.
One idea is to make 30 hours’ free childcare per week universal for parents of all two, three and four-year-olds.
Currently three and four-year-olds get 30 hours if their parents work at least 16 hours a week. Otherwise, they get 15 hours.
Two-year-olds currently only get 15 hours’ childcare if they are from a low-income family.
Ms Phillipson expressed frustration today at reports the PM is putting reforms on ice.
"Accessible, affordable childcare is essential for children, for families, for our economy," she tweeted.
"But the Prime Minister doesn't care. The Tories have given up on governing."
Several Tories also spoke out, with one Truss ally telling the Telegraph reform could "detoxify the Tory brand" and Mr Sunak would be "daft" not to act.
Simon Clarke, who was Levelling Up Secretary for Liz Truss, tweeted: "Childcare is *hugely* and unnecessarily expensive in England and we should do all we can to support working mums."
Conservative MP Siobhan Baillie also posted: "Something No 10/Ministers need to knock on the head quickly. Parents, childcare providers & employers need the complex & expensive childcare system reformed."
Steve Brine, Tory chair of the all-party parliamentary group on childcare and early education, said the situation was "serious".
He said: “There is a major structural problem with childcare in England, across facilities both run by the state and especially those run by private individuals and firms.
"There should be a review of long-term childcare funding. The pressure on costs for childcare providers is forcing many of them out of business."
Lib Dem Education spokesperson Munira Wilson branded it a "kick in the teeth for parents" and said the Tories weren't fit to govern.
"Every time the Conservative Government kicks the can down the road on childcare it leaves families with sky high bills which are simply unaffordable'" she said.
"Scrapping the ratios was always a bizarre and pointless idea, but refusing to help at all is a new low for this Government when it comes to childcare reform."
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We continue to review all options to improve the cost, choice and availability of high-quality childcare for working parents, which remains a priority for this Government.
“We have spent more than £20 billion over the past five years to support families with the cost of childcare and the number of places available in England has remained stable since 2015, with thousands of parents benefitting from this support.”
