Wanna hear the one about the low-paid dad who took paternity leave?

Figures also show ‘huge geographic disparities’ in paternity rights, with the south-east and London receiving as much in shared parental leave payments as Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the north-west, the north-east and Yorkshire and the Humber combined. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty

Toe-curlingly bad jokes (“I’m reading a book about anti-gravity, it’s impossible to put down”) are not the preserve of fathers, but as a demographic, dads are widely recognised for their unique comic talents.

Which is why on Thursday, dozens of MPs, many of them dad-joke specialists, will tell groan-worthy gags in the House of Commons to highlight the “real joke” of paternity leave in the UK.