A Scottish Tory leadership contender who said benefit claimants could not have as many children as they liked has doubled down on her comments.
MSP said she is in the contest to help “working people” and claimed people with jobs should have the “same opportunities” as those who are unemployed.
Ballantyne is trying to obtain the 100 signatures required to go head-to-head in the contest to replace Ruth Davidson.
Interim leader Jackson Carlaw is the favourite to win, but Ballantyne is also trying to enter the race.
As the party’s social security spokeswoman, she caused a row in 2018 after defending the Tory government policy on restricting some benefits to the first two children in a family.
She said: “The two-child limit is about fairness.
"It is fair that people on benefit cannot have as many children as they like while people who work and pay their way and don't claim benefits have to make decisions about the number of children they can have.”
In a BBC interview this morning, the South of Scotland MSP was asked whether she stood by her comments:
“That’s half a sentence. What I said is that we need a level playing field, so people who are in work need to have the same opportunities as people who aren’t in work.
She added: “Everybody can have as many children as they like, but it’s about having a family income. You can’t go to your employer and say ‘I’ve decided to have another baby, so could I have a pay rise please?’.
"This is about fairness, it’s about a level playing field, and working people understand that.”
She said she does not know whether any MPs or MSPs will be supporting her candidacy, but said she was talking to the party’s grassroots:“They are the people who really matter.”
Asked about previous claims that Boris Johnson would not play well in Scotland, she said:
“His reputation is growing in Scotland."
She added: “The press actually ran him down endlessly.”
