LIVE: March of the Mummies - parents take to the streets of Manchester to call for childcare reform
In Manchester mums and dads gathered in St Peter's Square. Joeli Brearley, founder and chief executive of Pregnant Then Screwed, said mothers will be coming together to protest because 'enough is enough' and they are fed up with an 'unaffordable, inaccessible, dysfunctional childcare sector'.
The protesters will be demonstrating about expensive childcare and poor paternity benefits, which is part of a situation they say is leading too many women of childbearing age to drop out of the workforce. Ms Brearley said: "We want urgent progress on women's rights. It's the 21st century, yet 54,000 mothers are being pushed out of thechildcare sector is in a mess. Thousands of nurseries have collapsed this year alone. We have had enough.