Children need to see both parents

Children should be given the right to see both their parents, according to a Tory MP as he called for a change in the law.

Charlie Elphicke said too often parents were allowed to prevent their former partners from seeing their children while “weak-kneed judges” seemed powerless to do anything about it.

He said that in one case, a judge had refused to allow a soldier from Coventry to see his six-year-old daughter before he was sent to fight in Afghanistan.

In another case one man was prevented from seeing his daughter unless he bought a bed for his former partner.

Introducing his Children (Access to Parents) Bill under the Ten Minute Rule, Mr Elphicke told the Commons: “The reason I bring in this Bill today ... is to ensure that we have a clear right of the child, a clear presumption in law, a clear and enforceable right, that will send a clear message to all the people involved in Cafcass (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service), to all those weak-kneed judges who won’t make any order or enforce any order, to those parents who have residence and should know better, it is not about your rights, it is about your children’s rights to grow up knowing both their mother and father.”

But Plaid Cymru’s Elfin Llwyd (Dwyfor Meirionnydd), a former family law solicitor, said the welfare of the child must come first and no change in the law was needed.

Mr Elphicke’s Bill, which despite Mr Llwyd’s comments gained an unopposed first reading, is unlikely to become law due to a lack of parliamentary time.