Widower's parental leave campaign raised with PM

Aaron Horsey with his son, Tim, and a picture of his wife Bernadette

A widower and new father who struggled to get time off work has said the issue should be "so simple" to resolve.

Aaron Horsey, from Nottinghamshire, found he did not qualify for statutory shared leave following the death of his wife during childbirth.

He took the issue to Conservative MP for Broxtowe, Darren Henry, who raised it at Prime Minister's Questions.

Rishi Sunak said he would arrange a meeting with the relevant minister to look at possible changes to the rules.

Rishi Sunak said he was "very concerned" at the situation and promised to help

Mr Horsey's wife, Bernadette, died in January and it was only in the immediate aftermath he found two issues meant he could not take statutory parental leave.

The current situation is up to 50 weeks of leave can be shared between parents - but only if both have given prior notice to their employers.

Additionally, the non-birthing partner must effectively have nearly nine months with the same employer before the birth to qualify.

Mr Horsey said his new employer was very understanding and managed to put together an alternate package of annual and compassionate leave.

"But the shock of finding out it wasn't something that would automatically happen meant I was left for days and weeks not knowing what would happen," he told the BBC.

"It was a lot of stress I did not need at the time.

"Equally my managers were no doubt stressing out trying to sort it and someone in a less fortunate position with an employer who was less understanding would really have been very stuck."

Different rules

Mr Horsey said the problem would also affect anyone, new to a job, who came to care for a baby if both parents had died but he believed the oversight should be "so simple to sort out".

At Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Henry told the Commons: "The current eligibility requirements differ between that of a surviving birthing partner as compared to a surviving non-birthing partner.

"This meant in Aaron's case he was not entitled to leave to raise his son."

Mr Sunak said he was "very concerned" at the situation and would arrange a meeting with the relevant minister to discuss the inequality.