Bereaved parents staged a protest in Parliament Square this week. They laid out children’s shoes and demanded better rights, leave entitlements and legal protections including the proposed Hugh’s Law. It was mentioned in live coverage and buried under leadership gossip before the day was out.
Parliament can find hours for procedural theatre. It can debate the naming conventions of select committees. It can argue about the wording of early day motions that nobody outside Westminster will ever read. But families hit by the worst moment of their lives still have to campaign for basic employment protection and humane treatment from the state and their employers.
This is a moral test dressed as employment law. Whether a parent who loses a child gets adequate paid leave, protection from dismissal and the right to grieve without losing their job should not require a protest, a petition and a private members bill. It should require a government that treats grief as real rather than an inconvenience to payroll.