Lucy Powell is the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council (Alamy)
4 min read
A group of 22 new Labour MPs has written to the Leader of the House of Commons and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to call for improved paternity leave for their parliamentary staff.
The letter, seen by PoliticsHome, argued that staff working for MPs should be entitled to the same generous paternity leave as their employers. In collaboration with campaign group the Dad Shift, the MPs described their staff’s current paternity provisions as “unfair”, addressing the letter to House of Commons leader Lucy Powell and IPSA chair Richard Lloyd.
While MPs’ parliamentary and constituency staff are directly employed by them individually, IPSA provide their employment contracts. Under IPSA’s current policy, staff are entitled to two weeks’ paid paternity leave following the birth or adoption of a child, taken in a single block. Any additional time must be covered using unpaid or annual leave.
In the letter, which Powell is expected to reply to in due course, the MPs said current rules mean they are “unable to support our staff appropriately at some of the most important times of their lives”.
“Dads in our offices get just two weeks off, a situation that is unfair and puts Parliament many steps behind top employers across the country,” they wrote, describing themselves as “essentially running small businesses”.
They highlighted that while MPs can take extended leave with additional staffing budget support to cover their absence, their staff cannot do the same.
The issue of paternity leave in Westminster has been a growing talking point in recent months. Labour MP Jon Pearce told PoliticsHome in December that the statutory two weeks was “definitely not enough”, having taken three weeks himself.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray became the first cabinet minister to take full paternity leave, following the birth of his second child.
Labour MP Luke Charters, 29, plans to take four weeks of paternity leave in July when his son is born. He previously raised the issue in Parliament, after Joseph Rowntree Foundation research showed that enhanced paternity leave could contribute £2.6bn in long-term economic growth.
Having co-signed the letter, Charters told PoliticsHome: “[Staff] need something like four weeks at 90 per cent [pay] – or much higher – and much more enhanced maternity and paternity leave commensurate with the rest of the public sector and private sector.
“It’s a tough job, you’ve got to recruit and retain the staff. It is an injustice and it doesn’t feel right that MPs can have more time off than their staff. There is just something wrong about that. If one of my staff went off to have a child now, I would feel uneasy that they had a worse contract.”
The executive committee of the GMB union’s parliamentary staff branch said that they “fully backed” MPs calling for better paternity leave for their staff and said the current provisions were “unacceptable”.
“This is why we’re calling for one single employer with one fair, standardised set of enhanced policies,” they said.
“Staff across Parliament deserve consistent rights and a workplace that supports family life. Better paternity leave is a simple but vital step toward making Parliament a fairer, more family-friendly place to work.”
The MPs have requested meetings with Powell and Lloyd and plan to continue working with The Dad Shift as Labour prepares to review the UK’s parental leave system.
Those involved in the letter have told PoliticsHome they were “positive” about the government’s appetite to improve parental leave across the board, not least because of its potential to boost long-term economic growth.
A new report from the Women and Equalities Committee, also published on Tuesday, has called on the government to raise paternity pay to 90 per cent of earnings for the first six weeks, aligning it with statutory maternity pay.
George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift and one of the letter’s organisers, said: “The UK’s paternity leave system is the worst in Europe, that’s costing families and it’s also costing businesses.
“Two weeks might work for a trip away this summer – but to bond with your baby, support your partner in recovery, and figure out what kind of dad you’re going to be? It’s madness, and every step towards sorting it out is one that working families will welcome.”
A government spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “We are committed to making sure parents receive the best possible support to balance their work and home lives as part of our Plan to Make Work Pay.
“We know the parental leave system needs to be improved and will be carrying out a review to ensure it best supports working families, and through our Employment Rights Bill, we will remove the 26-week continuity of service requirement for paternity leave.”
MPs who have signed the letter: Shaun Davies MP, Luke Charters MP, David Baines MP, Matt Turmaine MP, Maya Ellis MP, Joe Powell MP, Noah Law MP, Daniel Francis MP, Douglas McAllister MP, Graeme Downie MP, Gregor Poynton MP, Andrew Lewin MP, Darren Paffey MP, Calvin Bailey MP, Kevin McKenna MP, Yuan Yang MP, Josh Newbury MP, Jon Pearce MP, Peter Lamb MP, Mark Sewards MP, Lorraine Beavers MP, Sarah Smith MP.
