Campaigners tie baby slings to statues in call for better UK paternity leave

The statue of Gene Kelly in Leicester Square. The Dad Shift campaign founders said they wanted the result to be a ‘positively provocative sight’. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Men campaigning for enhanced paternity leave have attached lifesize model babies in slings to bronze statues of men across central London and called on the government to improve the UK’s parental leave options, which are ranked the least generous in Europe for fathers.

Activists from a new campaign group, the Dad Shift, tied model babies to statues of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the actors Laurence Olivier and Gene Kelly and the footballers Thierry Henry and Tony Adams, in an attempt to focus attention on the importance of father-baby bonding.