British Members of Parliament (MPs) arriving at Westminster on Monday morning were greeted by an unusual army: self-employed “tradies” (tradesmen) waiting outside to hand them condoms, the wrappers adorned with the line, “This lasts longer than our paternity leave.”

One might ask, why was a mass of tradesmen dispensing contraceptives outside the home of the British government? It starts with a policy gap that leaves tens of thousands of new dads without paternity leave.

The Dad Shift, a campaign for improved paternity leave in the UK, Equimundo, and On The Tools, the UK’s largest online construction community, organized Monday’s stunt on behalf of self-employed fathers. Unlike employees, these workers lack the same statutory entitlement to paternity leave. According to The Dad Shift, this translates into about 70,000 new fathers each year – many of them men in trades like construction, plumbing, building, and electrical work – excluded from the system, often lacking the financial bandwidth to care for their baby after delivery. And the demand for care is there: Equimundo’s 2025 State of UK Men found that eighty percent of UK fathers agreed that they should have paid time off to spend with their children.

Nonetheless, a poll conducted by On the Tools showed that around 30 percent of tradesmen didn’t take a single day off after the birth of their last child, with cost cited as the most common reason. 55 percent said they find it difficult to “support a family while making a living,” and over half (53 percent) reported feeling unsafe at work due to exhaustion.

The fix is hardly a financial drain. Forthcoming research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests it could cost the government between £6.8 million and £18.9 million per year to extend two weeks of statutory paternity pay (SPP) to this cohort – a drop in the bucket for the world’s sixth wealthiest country. George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift, stated bluntly: “It’s unacceptable that working blokes are shafted when their babies arrive, left totally unsupported in one of the most important and challenging times of their lives. It’s time for Labour to fix this.”

Bully for you – the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is starting to listen. In January 2026, Deputy PM David Lammy addressed the launch of the Labour Group for Men & Boys (LMB), a new coalition within the PLP chaired by MPs Alistair Strathern, Amanda Martin, Kenneth Stevenson, and Sarah Smith.

Recognizing that British boys and men face challenges long neglected, and that progressive politics has left a void for bad-faith actors to promote restrictive ideas of masculinity – the kind captured in Netflix’s hit Adolescence, set in the UK – the LMB hopes to take action and move beyond the zero-sum mindset that’s so pernicious for our collective politics. MP Martin, the mother of three sons, said she’s “proud to be building this group to better support lads like mine and their friends all across the country, and to take head on some of the nonsense being peddled to them online.”

Indeed, the LMB seeks to address the challenges that may feel familiar to American readers – boys falling behind in the classroom, uniquely high rates of joblessness among working-class men, the higher rate of suicides and premature deaths, and, of course, the nation’s poor paternity system compared to European neighbors. Gary Barker of Equimundo is one of the experts who helped get LMB off the ground, alongside Movember, The Dad Shift, and Hope Not Hate.

The Monday spectacle – in addition to dispensing condoms – took place before the group met with MPs, business leaders, and other experts. MP Strathern calls it an “absolute joke” that these self-employed dads get less time off to spend with their child than the time it takes to conceive them.

If you’re a sucker for entertainment, the Westminster stunt was just the opening act. The Dad Shift and On The Tools are using Monday’s event to launch an online campaign where tradesmen call attention to activities that last longer than paternity leave – from relishing a cup of tea to hammering a nail. You can check out some of the content already available:

@onthetoolstv

On The Tools on Instagram: "Why does the system forget self-emp…

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From the U.S. to the UK, Kansas to Kigali, there’s an abundance of barriers standing between dads and the time they need to be present from day one. As more and more divides us – in our politics, our societies, our ideas about what “good” parenting even looks like – the army of tradesmen marching on Westminster is a pleasant reminder that dads just want to be dads.

Last week, we explored the incredible desire that young men around the globe have to be fathers, and the understated power that good policy can play in supporting these goals. UK men are no exception: Equimundo’s 2025 State of UK Men found that eighty percent of fathers agreed being a dad is the “most important job in the world.”

A partnership between Equimundo, Rwandan NGO RWAMREC, and the Government of Rwanda, the “Bandebereho” initiative in Rwanda offers a rational (yet seemingly radical) model for governments to provide prospective and current fathers the tools and training to be better partners and caretakers. Couples who participated in the 15 to 17-week program – which connects fathers across communities to be trained in childcare skills, to discuss healthier communication, among other proactive strategies for better parenting – reported 55 percent lower rates of self-reported violence, higher contraceptive use, greater decision-making authority for women, and higher reported involvement of men in childcare. We all have much to learn.

And in the U.S., the road to sound paternity leave and a culture that truly embraces the role of fathers is longer yet. Unlike virtually every other wealthy nation, the U.S. offers no federally guaranteed paternity leave. Despite consistent polling that shows immense support across generational and gender lines, the policy roadblocks are tremendous. But what’s happening in the UK is, at least, a reason to smile.