Labour: Allow grandparents to take a month off to look after their grandchildren

Harriet Harman campaigns on Labour’s ‘woman to woman’ bus

Dubbed ‘granny leave’ the Labour party has said it would introduce a new legal right to allow working grandparents to take time off to care for their grandchildren.

Harriet Harman, the party’s deputy leader, said that under a Labour government grandparents would be able to take up to four weeks unpaid leave each year.

Research suggests 1.9 million grandparents have given up a job, reduced their hours, or taken time off work to look after their grandchildren.

And more than half of mothers rely on grandparents for childcare when they go back to work after taking maternity leave.

The policy, which would require a change in the law, will be officially announced at Labour’s women’s manifesto launch today.