Campaigners call for improved paternity leave with more than 100 Labour MPs backing movement
Currently, new fathers are entitled to two weeks’ leave, taken together or separately, on pay of either £187.18 a week, or 90% of their average weekly earnings, whichever is lower
More than 100 Labour MPs have backed calls for improved paternity leave arrangements, with strikes on the issue expected to take place across the UK.
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Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and former health secretary Wes Streeting are among those backing a change to paternity leave, campaign group The Dad Shift said.
Thousands of people are expected to picket Downing Street, Holyrood and the Senedd this summer to demand better for parents, including on flexible working.
Currently, new fathers are entitled to two weeks’ leave, taken together or separately, on pay of either £187.18 a week, or 90% of their average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Campaigners, including men’s health charity Movember, are calling for this to be increased to six weeks of leave, at 90% pay.
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The co-chairwoman of the Labour group for men and boys, Amanda Martin, called for action from the Government, saying: “We need to make sure time with dad isn’t something only wealthy families can afford.”
The Labour MP for Portsmouth North added: “The evidence shows that better paternity leave is good for families and good for the economy too, meaning this is part of what we can do to get the country growing again.”
Fellow co-chair and Labour MP for Hitchin, Alistair Strathern, said: “Working parents are the backbone of our economy but the pressures of raising children are becoming impossible for too many families.
“As a nation we need to take decisive action to ensure working parents get the support they need, both in those critical early weeks and when they return to work. That means better paternity leave and flexible working arrangements.”
Labour former minister Justin Madders, chairwoman of the women and equalities committee Sarah Owen, and newly appointed defence minister Calvin Bailey have also supported the cause, The Dad Shift said.
The Government launched a review of parental leave last year with the aim of improving the system.
Parent strikes are also due to be held in Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham and Glasgow.
They are led by Anna Whitehouse, the founder of Flex Appeal and also known as Mother Pukka, and campaign group The Dad Shift.
George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift said: “Parenting is meant to be hard, but it’s not meant to be this hard.
“In just a few generations, the costs of raising kids have skyrocketed. Raising a family can’t be allowed to become the preserve of the well-off, and it’s not like we don’t know how to prevent that.”