The Liberal Democrats will announce plans to triple statutory paternity leave to six weeks on Wednesday, the third day of the formal general election campaign.

The plan will be unveiled by party leader Nick Clegg and Lib Dem equalities minister Jo Swinson, standing for re-election in East Dunbartonshire, coinciding with the introduction of shared parental leave across the country this week – a coalition policy the Liberal Democrats claim as their own.



The pledge, which will be in the party’s yet-to-be launched manifesto, will give fathers an extra four weeks off work with ordinary paternity pay (currently set at £138.18 per week) when they have a child.

Clegg is expected to say that for too long mothers have been told their place is at home with their child, while fathers are expected to return to work. “I want parents to choose for themselves how to balance work and family,” he will say.

Shared parental leave and pay comes into effect for babies due on or after 5 April or adoptions where the child is placed on or after that date. Under the new system, eligible couples will be able to share parental leave following the first two-week recovery period that mothers have to take off after birth, so up to 50 weeks’ leave and 37 weeks of pay can be shared.

The announcement comes the day before Nick Clegg will take part in a seven-way televised leaders’ debate on ITV. The deputy prime minister said it was “self-evident” he would not “triumph” at the event.

He told journalists travelling on the Liberal Democrat campaign bus that he had not prepared as thoroughly as he did for the debate with Gordon Brown and David Cameron ahead of the 2010 general election, which he was widely considered to have won.



“I’m not spending nearly as much time trying to think through every twist and turn. I’m not preparing nearly quite as methodically as last time,” he said. “The longer I’ve been in politics the more I think you can over-think these things. And it will be very different – there’ll be seven of us.”

He said that his televised debates with Ukip leader Nigel Farage taught him that “you might marshal the best arguments, but if there are people who play better to the gallery they are going to do well”.

“So I’ve been in politics long enough to know it’s not a beauty contest and it tends to be the case that newcomers or people not well known to the public tend to do best, so I enter with quite sober, realistic expectations. But I intend to enjoy it.”



The party’s plan to triple paternity leave would extend overall paternity leave to 58 weeks. The Liberal Democrats say they would consult on the policy with a view to implementing it at the earliest opportunity and by 2018-19 at the latest. The annual cost to the public purse has been estimated by the Department for Business Innovation and skills at £58m.