Abolish maternity leave, says Cameron adviser

In a controversial statement, Steve Hilton, Mr Cameron's director of strategy, suggests we should abolish maternity leave to help kick start the economy

Abolish maternity leave and scrap all consumer rights, if you want to boost the economy, argues David Cameron's director of strategy.

Steve Hilton, Cameron's controversial policy guru, made the bizarre suggestions at a meeting to discuss the Government's growth strategy in March.

The architect of the 'Big Society' went onto suggest that the Prime Minister should abolish all job centres and ignore all European labour rules.

Senior officials, including Downing Street’s permanent secretary Jeremy Heywood, were left dumbfounded by his extraordinary ideas.

His most controversial of all, however, was to scrap maternity rights: 'Steve thinks that they are the biggest obstacle to women finding work,' added the insider.

Admired by Mr Cameron for his original thinking, Mr Hilton's wacky ideas are increasingly exasperating officials and colleagues.

His ‘horizon shift’ thinking and ‘mood boards’ used to enrage Andy Coulson, Mr Cameron’s former head of communications.

Although one senior No 10 source confirmed that the ideas were raised, the source was quick to highlight that most of Mr Hilton's ideas are not implemented.

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