nick clegg will promise new fathers six weeks of paternity leave if his party gets into government for a second term  nick clegg will promise new fathers six weeks of paternity leave if his party gets into government for a second term the liberal democrats would triple the amount of leave for dads of newborns from the current two weeks – and pay them the maternity leave rate of £13818 a week it will be seen as a bid to woo women voters and young families ahead of the general election, but will face concerns from the business community mr clegg has already pushed for shared parental leave, which starts from next week (april 5) it means parents can split a year off work between them at statutory pay this means that a mother who wishes to end her maternity leave – and pay – early to return to work, can hand over their entitlement to the child’s father but mr clegg and the business minister jo swinson announced today that fathers can have an extra four weeks leave at home with the child’s mother, and both would be entitled to pay mr clegg believes the two week period fathers get is often treated as a holiday, and extending it would encourage men to be more involved in childcare the policy will be in the party’s manifesto and would be introduced in 2018 19 after consultation with businesses they hope half a million fathers would benefit from the scheme which would cost £58million a year, and be paid for once the deficit is cleared mr clegg said today: ‘the liberal democrats want to tear down the barriers that stop people reaching their full potential for too long, mums have been told their place is at home with their child, while dads return to work i want parents to choose for themselves how to balance work and family’ the entitlement would be under a ‘use it or lose it’ basis so fathers must start their six weeks’ leave within eight weeks of their child’s birth and cannot transfer it to the mother mr clegg was promoting his policy to treble paternity leave to six weeks with lib dem minister jo swinson (right) as he visited play town soft play centre in bishopbriggs, east dunbartonshire  labour have already pledged to increase paid paternity leave to four weeks – and increase paternity pay   which triggered criticism from small businesses that the costs would be prohibitive but lib dem sources said the policy would help businesses retain staff who wanted to take time off with their families around 55pc of fathers take the full two weeks currently available one of mr clegg’s early schemes, in 2011, to encourage parents to share their time off – called additional paternity leave – was a flop after being found to have an uptake of only 1pc scroll down for video  mr clegg, who yesterday tried his hand at making pancakes on a visit to cardiff, believes the two week period fathers get is often treated as a holiday, and extending it would encourage men to be more involved in childcare  it allowed fathers to take the statutory six months maternity leave instead of mothers, but the downside was that they would not get any pay after the first two weeks lib dem sources said: ‘there was low uptake of that scheme because it wasn’t paid, so families made decisions based on their finances and of course there was also a cultural barrier ‘but we believe six weeks of paternity leave on statutory pay will be popular and help to change attitudes there has been no greater champion for this in government than jo swinson, she pushed for six weeks paternity leave in government but the tories blocked it’ the scheme is modelled on a similar one in sweden in which fathers get a ‘daddy month’ and also the right to shared leave for more than a year uptake is high because fathers are entitled to 90pc of their full pay but miss swinson said yesterday that the aim was to ‘challenge the gender stereotypes that all too often write fathers off as hapless or bumbling’ she added: ‘liberal democrats want to triple paternity leave, to encourage new dads to spend more time with their child in those vital early weeks and month after birth most fathers want to spend more time with their new baby – and we know it makes a positive difference for children when they do’
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liberal democrats would triple the amount of leave for dads of newborns  pledges to pay them the maternity leave rate of £13818 a week  clegg has already pushed for shared parental leave, which starts next week 