Children of working mothers 'more likely to mug you', Boris Johnson writes

Johnson has been slammed for heavily criticising women who work. Photo / Getty Images

A collection of essays written by Boris Johnson in 2006 has now resurfaced and is causing uproar over his comments regarding children of working mothers in low-income families.

Johnson wrote in one essay that children from low-income families, with mums who work, are "unloved and undisciplined" and more likely to "mug you on the street corner".

In his collection of essays, entitled "Have I Got Views for You", he criticises women who work, saying they have been "socially gestapoed into the workplace", The Guardian reports.

Johnson wrote that an increasing number of female graduates tend to pair up with male graduates and then pool their advantages.

"The result is that in families on lower incomes the women have absolutely no choice but to work, often with adverse consequences for family life and society as a whole – in that unloved and undisciplined children are more likely to become hoodies, Neets [not in education, employment or training] and mug you on the street corner," he wrote.

The essays have caused uproar in the run-up to the election in Britain, with shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, saying "Boris Johnson has nothing but contempt for women and working-class people".

"For him to speak about us in such a disgusting manner shows just how out of touch he is. It is clear he only ever stands up for the privileged few," she added.

This is not the first time Johnson's old writings have come back to haunt him.

As a columnist for the Daily Telegraph - a job for which he earned more than $550,000 a year - Johnson wrote that Muslim women wearing a burqa looked like "letterboxes".

Questioned over this, and other remarks, he said he "genuinely never intended to cause hurt or pain to anybody" but added he has the right to "speak out".