SCOTTISH Secretary Ian Murray revealed he is to become the first UK Cabinet Minister to take full paternity leave when he becomes a dad for a second time.
The MP for Edinburgh South with his wife Mariam are expecting a brother or sister for their daughter Zola in the coming weeks.
The Labour Government’s Make Work Pay agenda which delivers a series of day one rights of employment, including entitlement to Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave, which will benefit an additional 1.5million parents.
But currently one-in-five dads and partners that are eligible for paternity leave take no leave at all.
As a working mum of two, Carol Erskine welcomed Murray’s decision to take his full fortnight paternity leave entitlement — but insists his Labour government needs to do much more for new parents.
Her charity Pregnant Then Screwed helps support pregnant women and mothers facing loss of pay, navigating childcare and redundancies with up-to-date information about their employment rights.
But she firmly believes that dads also play an important role in the first weeks of a newborn’s life.
She said: “While it’s welcome that Iain Murray is doing this, I feel very disappointed it’s taken until 2025 before we have a cabinet minister actually taking their full entitlement of paternity leave.
“This says a lot about the work that needs to be done on paternity leave in the UK and how far we have to go to normalise the role of dads as caregivers.”
By law, an employer must pay statutory paternity to those eligible of £184.03 a week. But Pregnant Then Screwed wants to see that extended to six weeks leave paid at 90 per cent of salary.
She said: “We have worked with the Centre for Progressive Policy on how dads involvement in those first few weeks has a longer term impact on children.
“It can be really crucial for parents especially if mums have had a difficult birth, if you have a child that’s born prematurely.
“A growing number of women have a caesarean section now which means a six week recovery when you can’t drive, you have to really watch what you’re doing.
“Even a textbook term that goes as planned is still a massive upheaval to deal with a baby with little to no sleep.”
She adds: “We know as well that dads don’t want to be straight back after two weeks. They want to be more involved at home, but it comes down to if they can afford it.
“That’s why a lot of them end up taking two weeks holiday instead which means that they’re not actually getting an entitlement.”
Carol also believes that an increase of paternity leave will help more mums to return to the work place and therefore reduce the gender pay gap.
She explains: “Quite simply it means you will see more women return to work, which ultimately is better for the economy in the longer term.
“We know when there’s enhanced paternity leave it does reduce the gender pay gap.”
However, with businesses still reeling from the Labour Government’s National Insurance increase, which saw Sainsbury’s announce it will lay off 3,000 staff due to a “challenging cost environment”, will surely baulk at increased paternity pay?
Carol concedes: “We know if you are in a job where there might only be a small number of you then even to take two weeks off is quite ambitious.
“But it has been shown that dads who go back to work are more productive and also more likely to stay in that job.
“We’ve got to get out of that mindset and think how it is going to be beneficial longer term for society as well.
“There’s the whole issue with Scotland’s declining birth rate, it’s projected to be worse than the rest of the UK, so we need to be having more kids to help maintain our public services in the future.”
She adds: “But we have a long way to go, a recent study of all the European countries showed the UK at the bottom when it came to paternity leave.
“We’re not even talking about the Scandinavia countries but places like Romania, Latvia, Malta and Italy are all ahead of us.”
So while Carole praises Iain Murray for taking a step in the right direction as he prepares to welcome a new addition to his household, she now wants to see Labour do a whole lot more for other dads.
She said: “We are loudly applauding Ian for setting an example that we hope other members of government will follow.
“But we hope to see Labour address the challenges faced by all of the dads and partners who are unable to spend crucial time with their new families.”
