Campaigners tie baby carriers to statues in call for better paternity leave in UK | Maternity and paternity rights

Men campaigning for extended paternity leave have attached life-size baby models in slings to bronze statues of men in central London, and have called on the government to improve the UK’s parental leave scheme, which is considered the least favourable for fathers in Europe.

Campaigners from a new action group, the Dad Shift, tied baby models to statues of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, actors Laurence Olivier and Gene Kelly, and footballers Thierry Henry and Tony Adams, in an attempt to draw attention to the importance of the bond between father and child.

The UK has the worst paternity leave provision in Europe, with just two statutory weeks’ leave paid at £184.03 a week. As a result, a recent study found that one in three British fathers did not take any paternity leave after the birth of their child, and one in two families where fathers did take paternity leave reported financial hardship afterwards.

The campaigners plan to send an open letter to the Prime Minister later this month, calling on him to take urgent action to improve paternity leave.

“Good parental leave for fathers and co-parents is good for mothers, good for babies, good for fathers and also good for society. Countries with six or more weeks of paternity leave have a gender pay gap that is 4% smaller and an employment rate gap that is also 3.7% smaller, meaning change can help the economy grow and help British families at the same time,” the open letter reads.

Campaigners are calling for ‘parental leave that is affordable for people, provides sufficient time and supports equality between parents’.

A new poll conducted ahead of the campaign’s launch found that 90% of fathers said they wanted to play a greater role in their children’s lives. The Labour Party pledged in its manifesto that its government would “overhaul the parental leave system so that it best supports working families within its first year in government”.

Dad Shift co-founders George Gabriel and Alex Lloyd Hunter travelled around central London to attach model babies to the statues of men, aided by Mel Pinet, who runs classes to help parents master the art of tying baby slings and bonding with their newborns. The sight of the statues of prominent male figures with babies cradled to their chests attracted considerable interest from morning commuters.

“A lot of people stopped to take pictures; people responded very warmly. We wanted it to be a positively provocative sight,” Gabriel said. “There’s such an imbalance in our representation and understanding of figures in public life. Women are often asked about their lives as wives, mothers and daughters, while male figures in public life are often not invited to share that part of themselves. We wanted to draw attention to their role as fathers and also the need to better support people when babies come into their lives.”

Sitting between platforms eight and nine at Paddington Station, Brunel (who had three children) looked very relaxed with a baby in his right arm and his top hat in his left hand. Kelly, hanging from a lamppost in Leicester Square and waving an umbrella, looked cheerful, with a baby strapped securely to his chest.

John Seward Johnson II’s statue of a harried city worker, briefcase and raincoat in hand, trying to hail a cab since it was created in 1983 was instantly transformed by the addition of a baby in a sling into a frustrated parent trying to get his child to daycare before work. Elsewhere, activists strapped twins to Stephen Melton’s statue of a yuppie salesman talking on his cell phone.

Marvyn Harrison, the founder of digital community Dope Black Dads, which is backing the campaign, said he was optimistic the government would make the issue a priority. “It feels urgent. The UK is unusual in how far behind other countries we are on this,” he said. “We need to create lasting conditions where men can be better parents, husbands, friends and people.”