MPs must have right to parental leave

Today, the Government will pass The Ministerial and Other Maternity Allowances Bill, which gives the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition the power to provide six months maternity leave on full pay to government ministers and some of the shadow cabinet.

Over a dozen women’s rights and charitable organisations including Pregnant Then Screwed, Women’s Budget Group and Fawcett Society have co-signed Centenary Action’s statement calling on the government to take a small but symbolic step in ensuring parental leave is a right that all workers should enjoy, and that participation in politics is open to all.

Read the full statement here

It is right that no minister should be forced out of their post due to pregnancy. Yet, if this legislation passes without any further reforms, it will set a precedent of a two-tier system of maternity and paternity rights.

There is still no formal provision for MPs to take parental leave, with MPs such as Siobhan Baillie who have tried to get maternity cover let down.

Centenary Action is calling for there to be a uniform and automatic right to parental, adoption, and caring leave for MPs.

Statement from Helen Pankhurst, Convener, Centenary Action:

The government’s response to Covid-19 has lacked a gendered perspective, and up and down the country we have seen the costs of this myopia.

Meanwhile, arcane and anti-social parliamentary working practices, including the glacially slow recognition of the need for parental leave, remain major barriers to women’s involvement in political life. Parliament must be brought into the 21st century.

Instead of doing the right thing for just those at the top of politics, the government must do the right thing for all.