Nursery World - Outrage over Leadsom's comments that male childcarers might be paedophiles

The early years sector has been outraged by comments made by Andrea Leadsom, the new environment and rural affairs secretary, who claimed that men who worked in childcare might be paedophiles.

The remarks were made during the same interview with The Times in which the then Tory leadership challenger claimed that she would be a better PM than Theresa May because she was a mother.

It was after this interview that Mrs Leadsom pulled out of the Tory Leadership race.

The Times has now published the comments she made at the time about men working as nannies.

In the interview she said, ‘As an employer we’re not, let’s face it, most of us don’t employ men as nannies, most of us don’t. Now you can call that sexist, I call that cautious and very sensible when you look at the stats. Your odds are stacked against you if you employ a man, We know paedophiles are attracted to working with children. I’m sorry but they’re the facts.’

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