Western civilisation is on the brink of a collapse like that of ancient Rome because the modern generation does not want the responsibility of bringing up children, the former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks has warned.

He singled out falling birth-rates alongside the addiction to debt, the breakup of the family unit and a growing gap between the super-rich and the rest among a handful of major crises facing Britain and other European countries which neither governments nor the market seem able to solve.

But ultimately, he said, European society as we know it “will die” because of the demographic crisis.

He warned that even mass immigration is not a solution because of problems integrating new arrivals into existing society.