Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday the government should intervene “at a very early stage” to stop the children of problem families growing up into troublemakers themselves.
Blair told the BBC that teenage mothers could be required to accept state assistance with bringing up their children and could face sanctions if they refused.
In his first interview since returning from his summer break, Blair said intervention could even be taken “pre-birth”.
“If we are not prepared to predict and intervene far more early then there are children that are going to grow up in families that we know perfectly well are completely dysfunctional, and the kids a few years down the line are going to be a menace to society and actually a threat to themselves,” he told the BBC.
He said the government could say to an unmarried teenager mother who was not in a stable relationship:
“Here is the support we are prepared to offer you, but we do need to keep a careful watch on you and how your situation is developing because all the indicators are that your type of situation can lead to problems in the future,” he said.
Conservative policy director Oliver Letwin said more state intervention was not the answer.
“The only realistic way forward lies with social enterprise, charities and voluntary groups. It is no good the government simply trying to run peoples’ lives,” he said in a statement.