An influential group of MPs is to consider laws to encourage new fathers to stay at home to look after their babies.

They believe that ensuring that fathers and mothers share the upbringing of babies and young children is the only way to get rid of the gender pay gap.

The new inquiry launched by the Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee, led by Tory MP Maria Miller, has been attacked by critics who claim that politicians should stop interfering in family life.

MPs believe that ensuring that fathers and mothers share the upbringing of babies and young children is the only way to get rid of the gender pay gap

It follows the failure of the Shared Parental Leave scheme, a pet project of former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, to attract interest from more than a handful of the working fathers to whom it offered the opportunity to share childrearing with mothers.

Mrs Miller’s increasingly controversial committee – which last year recommended that everyone over the age of 16 should have an automatic right to change their legal sex – has not set out whether it wants laws that would put pressure on men to take parental leave, and on employers to ensure they did so, or whether it will offer them new opportunities on the lines of Mr Clegg’s scheme.

It comes as a report published today (mon) warns that the UK risks creating a ‘fatherhood penalty’ as men jettison their careers for less demanding roles which allow them to spend more time with their children.

Tory MP Maria Miller said yesterday: ‘Many fathers want to take a more active role in caring for their children'

The 2017 Modern Families Index found that many fathers now ‘face the same barriers to their career progression that mothers have faced for decades’ simply because they are parents.

The select committee, led by former Cabinet Minister Maria Miller, will consider ‘what policy or legislative changes would be most effective in supporting fathers to fulfil their caring responsibilities?’

It will also examine whether there are ‘social or attitudinal barriers to fathers in the workplace which need to be challenged’.

Mrs Miller, who resigned as Culture Secretary in 2014 following an expenses scandal, said the committee was ‘asking whether fathers are being failed in the workplace’.

She has insisted that ‘clearly more needs to be done’.

Mrs Miller said yesterday: ‘Many fathers want to take a more active role in caring for their children.

‘Our report on the gender pay gap found that investing in policies that support men to share childcare equally, and allow women to continue working, will reap financial benefits as well as reducing the gender pay gap.

‘Supporting parents in the workplace is a priority for the Government. Yet it admits that its flagship Shared Parental Leave policy is likely to have a very low take-up rate.’

But Laura Perrins, co-editor of the Conservative Home website, said it was ‘clear that what the committee ultimately wants to do is to introduce yet more regulation into employment’.

Laura Perrins, pictured with her son Matthew, said Mrs Miller 'should leave the social engineering alone'

She said: ‘This is likely to reduce employment opportunities and squeeze pay even further, which will be detrimental to already squeezed family income.

‘Maria Miller should leave the social engineering alone, and let families get on with caring and providing for their children, and leave businesses to get on with providing employment.’

The 2017 Modern Families Index surveyed 2,750 parents across the UK who are in paid employment - with equal numbers among the sexes.

It found that almost half of working fathers (47 per cent) want to downshift to a less stressful job because of difficulty reconciling professional and home life.

Just over a third (38 per cent) admit they would be willing to take a pay cut to achieve a better work-life balance.

These aspirations are more pronounced among younger fathers, with 46 per cent prepared to see their wages reduced in return for more parity with home life.

Fifty-three per cent of millennial fathers also want to downshift to a less stressful job, according to the research carried out by work-life charity, Working Families, and Bright Horizons, a provider of early years care.

Overall, seven out of ten fathers (69 per cent) and eight out of ten mothers would ‘assess their childcare needs’ before taking a new job or promotion.

Researchers said this indicated that ‘both genders now feel they might have to downgrade their careers in order to care for their families’.

However, fathers are ‘less comfortable’ about asking for formal flexible working arrangements as they fear a request ‘signals a lack of commitment’ to their job.

They are also more likely to lie or ‘bend the truth’ to their employer about their family responsibilities – 44 per cent compared to 37 per cent of mothers.

The report concludes: ‘More women are in paid employment than before and at the same time fathers want to be more involved with their children’s lives.

‘But rather than bringing about a change in working practices, these trends seem to have left working fathers facing the same conundrums that working mothers have faced for decades.’