Sir Jeremy Hunt has called on ministers to change the law around maternity leave so that it can be delayed for those recently diagnosed with cancer.
Two women find out they have cancer during or shortly after pregnancy every day, according to the charity Mummy’s Star.
But maternity leave cannot be delayed in the UK, meaning many mothers have to choose between spending time with their newborn and receiving treatment.
The longest-serving health secretary in British history is backing calls to change the law so that mothers diagnosed with cancer would be able to delay maternity leave for up to a year after birth, calling the move a “no-brainer”.
Sir Jeremy, who received a cancer diagnosis himself, said it is “one of the most terrifying things that can happen to you”, and described how “you feel like there’s a guillotine hanging over your head and you just don’t know”.
His cancer was caught early, but the disease has taken both of his parents and his brother.
Addressing the calls to change maternity leave, he warned ministers that “the longer you wait, the more people will suffer”.
Speaking to Sky News, Sir Jeremy added that such a change would face “zero opposition from any other parties in the House” if it was introduced as a draft law by the government, or as a private member’s bill.
The campaign has received cross-party support, being championed by a key aide to the prime minister, as well as by other Labour MPs and members of the Liberal Democrats.
There have been limited studies into the number of women who receive a cancer diagnosis during or in the immediate months after pregnancy.
But Macmillan Cancer Support says what research there is suggests around one in every 1,000 pregnancies result in the mother discovering they have cancer – and that this number is rising.
The charity also backs up figures from Mummy’s Star that on average, “at least two women every day” are diagnosed with cancer while pregnant, or shortly after birth.
A report published in the US-based Journal of Global Oncology in 2018 also found a slightly higher rate, of around one diagnosis per 800 pregnancies.
The move is being led by Mummy’s Star founder Pete Wallroth, whose own wife, Mair, was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant in June 2012. Two months later, she gave birth to her second child – but the cancer spread and she died that December.
He told Sky News that Mair’s cancer diagnosis “really impacted her and her early days as a mum for the second time”.
“We can’t be penalising people unfairly just because they got a cancer diagnosis around their pregnancy,” he said.
Ashleigh Eccles, who was diagnosed with cancer shortly after giving birth in 2023, said she felt “an immense amount of grief” at losing her entire maternity leave to cancer treatment. She routinely had to leave her newborn with her parents while she went for chemotherapy.
“I really felt like I had missed out on this magical time to bond with my baby,” she said.
Ms Eccles was also “totally surprised” to learn that maternity leave couldn’t be delayed, and that she was “never going to get that time back”.
Similarly, Beth Dedman was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma shortly after giving birth to her first child in 2024.
She said her employers were “brilliant” about the situation – but “they didn’t know what to do”.
“It all seemed like it was wrong, that something was missing,” she said. “I was thinking ‘that can’t be right’. Everybody that I came across didn’t really know how to tell me that [delaying maternity leave] wasn’t even an option.”
Mr Wallroth believes that the current situation means “everybody loses”, and pushes women out of their jobs, as they often don’t return full-time, having spent precious few moments with their newborn. He said changing the rules on maternity leave would involve a short-term cost, but a long-term saving.
“If you’re able to better support that process, if you’re able to offer a deferment, they’re far more likely to stay in that job in the long-term,” he said.
“I know what the Treasury will say,” said Sir Jeremy, who served as the chancellor for almost two years, under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
He continued: “They’ll say, ‘look, why make an exception for cancer? What about other illnesses that people could get as well?’ The truth is that the law is always a bit messy, but in a compassionate society, we need to make some room for exceptions – and this is one that just seems to be very sensible.”
Labour MP Jon Pearce, who is a parliamentary private secretary for Sir Keir Starmer, raised the issue with ministers after hosting some of the campaigners in parliament last month.
“You could not fail to be moved by the stories of mothers whose maternity leave was spent undergoing treatment for cancer,” he told Sky News. “I cannot imagine what it must be like for a mum excited about bonding with their new baby to have their lives turned upside down.”
Changing the law “would benefit around 700 mums each year”, he added.
Ireland has already taken the decision to allow maternity leave to be delayed in certain circumstances, introducing the change in 2024.
Referring to this, Sir Jeremy said: “If you can point to a country where it’s happened, and it hasn’t caused the skies to fall in, then that’s a pretty good indication it’s a sensible thing to do.
“It’s a real shame to hang around on something like this that really would make life better for lots of people.”
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A spokesperson for the Department of Business and Trade said: “Receiving news of a cancer diagnosis is devastating for individuals and families at any time, especially for mothers on maternity leave who should be spending that precious time bonding with their newborn baby.
“Our National Cancer Plan sets out how we will support people, including pregnant and postnatal women with cancer, and our parental leave review is exploring how we can better support working families so that parents can spend time doing what matters most – caring for their baby.”
