Peter Lazenby
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THOUSANDS of protesters marched in towns and cities across Britain on Saturday demanding funding for childcare for working parents.
The protests were organised by campaigning charity Pregnant Then Screwed — a reference to the exorbitant cost of childcare.
Britain has the highest childcare costs of any developed nation. Campaigners say it is often higher than the wages workers are able to earn.
More than 15,000 people marched and rallied in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Norwich, Belfast and Exeter.
Many protesters wore bandages depicting themselves as mummies and other Halloween fancy dress costumes.
In London protesters carried banners reading: “The future won’t raise itself” and “Affordable childcare now” as they marched to Parliament Square.
They rallied outside the Houses of Parliament where Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said: “We need to force them to listen.
“When the policy-makers finally do something … they’ll pretend it was all their idea, but we will remember this moment.”
Labour MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had likened maternity leave to a holiday, suggesting that he “doesn’t really know what he’s talking about.”
She said: “We’ve got a cost-of-living crisis and an economy that isn’t growing. You can’t solve either of those challenges without investing in childcare.
“For me, investing in childcare pays off because the more women — and it is mainly women being penalised by this — can work, the more families can make choices that work for them.
“A lot of us were really, really concerned to hear Rishi Sunak compare taking maternity leave to holiday, which kind of reflected that he didn’t really know what he was talking about.
“So, I hope they listen to this protest, recognise the figures above all else and start working out how they can invest in childcare.”
Women’s Equality Party leader Mandu Reid accused the government of leaving mothers to work on “pittance wages” while raising children.
She said that “underpaid, undervalued, largely women workers” were paying the cost for the “failures” of the political system.
“We can win this,” she said. “We won’t stop until our political system fixes the problems it’s created.”
