Boris Johnson is all for unconventional families – unless they're poor, of course

It's wonderful that Number 10 reflects the social liberalism of our age. If only the prime minister applied that social liberalism, well, liberally

Boris is having a baby. Well, more accurately, his girlfriend Carrie Symonds is having a baby, fathered by the prime minister. Another mismanaged withdrawal agreement, someone tweeted as the news broke. The pair are unmarried, making this incoming little bundle of joy – shock, horror! – illegitimate.

Now, that’s not very conservative. But then again, nor is sloshing enough wine to chuck a laptop across the room prompting the neighbours to call the police. But we know by now that Boris is a law unto himself.

After that row, most thought Symonds wouldn’t stay in Number 10 long enough to greet the removal van. However, the happy news has cemented the 31-year-old status as First Lady.

The couple’s set-up seemingly marks a new period of social liberalism that will benefit any family that veers away from the nuclear. Though it hasn’t been tried at Number 10 before, cohabitation is the new normal. 5 million Britons live together out of wedlock – and our leadership finally reflects that.

However, despite his own blossoming unconventional family unit, our PM has had plenty to say about illegitimate children. In a 1995 column for The Spectator, he claimed that children of single mums are “producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children.” Suggesting benefits cuts would deal with the problem of rising teen pregnancy rates, he wrote: “It must be generally plausible that if having a baby out of wedlock meant sure-fire destitution on a Victorian scale, young girls might indeed think twice about having a baby.”

Yet having a baby out of wedlock often does mean destitution: two-thirds of families living in temporary accommodation in England are single mothers and their children; the number of homeless single mums has gone up by 48% in eight years. Turns out, fighting poverty with poverty doesn’t work as well as Johnson hoped.

Later, in 2006, Boris wrote that children of working mothers in low-income families were “unloved and undisciplined”, and more likely to “mug you on the street corner.”

The bulk of his comments were made years ago, and Boris has since apologised saying that they were taken out of context. However, the insidious effects of statements like these can’t be undone by one wealthy couple.

Just this weekend, Police chief Jackie Sebire pointed the finger at single-parent households once again. Speaking about the problem of knife crime, she said it’s “not only [about a lack of] public services, it’s absent fathers.” The rhetoric and blame continues to fall on the shoulders of unmarried mothers.

Despite being so vocal about other people’s families, Boris prefers to keep the details of his close to his chest, and in some cases legally gagged.

Appearing on LBC, the PM dodged repeated questions about his family life. Nick Ferrari asked, “How many children do you have? Are you fully involved in all their lives?” Boris refused to reply.

Boris is, in fact, father to Lara, 26, Milo, 24, Cassie Peaches, 24, and Theodore Apollo, 20, from his first marriage to barrister Marina Wheeler. In 2009, it became public that he fathered a daughter with a former colleague, after unsuccessfully seeking a super injunction.

Perhaps Boris is right that there are more important issues to focus on than when and how often you procreate. Yet the prime ministers seems more than happy to focus on the baby-making of low-income families if it allows him to ignore the more complex issues at play in their poverty. Boris and Carrie aren’t trailblazers: they’re evidence of classist double standards when it comes to unconventional families.