Fathers’ rights campaigners have defended a direct action protest outside the Tarporley home of Crewe and Nantwich MP Edward Timpson just days after the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox.
Protesters Bobby Smith, Les Culshaw and James Dennis from Stop The War on Dads group – New Fathers 4 Justice led a demonstration outside Mr Timpson’s house on Sunday, to coincide with Father’s Day, claiming the Minister of State for Children and Families had refused to meet them.
A spokesman for Mr Timpson said the MP was ‘not willing to make a statement’ in relation to what was an ongoing issue.
The group claimed the Tory MP was at home when they arrived at his address as they saw him driving away but this has not been confirmed.
The timing of the direct action so soon after the death of Batley and Spen Labour MP Jo Cox appears to have triggered a significant response from Cheshire Police who confirmed there were no arrests during the seven-hour stunt.
READ MORE: Ellesmere Port MP says Jo Cox would have been a national figure for years
Les Culshaw, 51, from Preston, told The Chronicle his group – previously involved in high profile stunts including protests at Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey – had alerted police of their intention to carry out the demonstration by sending a message to their Facebook page the night before.
Mr Culshaw, who wore a Honey Monster outfit for the protest, said: “We are a peaceful and humorous group who will attempt whatever is necessary to achieve reform. We pose no physical threat to anyone. We notified Cheshire Police in advance.”
Mr Culshaw, a father-of-three, who wants contact with his daughter, said he had tried to meet with Mr Timpson in his capacity as children's minister but he was ‘never available’. He said the group was fighting not only for themselves but on behalf of other parents denied access to their children.
Campaigners claimed the protest involved seven people including campaigners from Stevenage and Birmingham as well as local residents.
READ MORE: Cheshire MPs pay tribute to Jo Cox who died after gun and knife attack
A group spokesman said afterwards: “This protest was due to the failure of the MP to engage with contact deprived or alienated fathers within his ministerial role or even agree to meet with distraught fathers who are in this sad and difficult position.
“This position is often by no fault of their own but that of an unreasonable mother who has simply decided that the father’s role is no longer required regardless of any detrimental impact on her own child. Sadly, the group members claim that the family courts condone this form of emotional abuse.”
The demonstration took place less than three weeks after a protest by Samantha Johnson of Liverpool, who has links to the same organisation, at Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Civic Way offices in Ellesmere Port aimed at the social services department.
CWaC declined to comment.
Earlier this year New Fathers 4 Justice surrounded the Liverpool Radisson Blu hotel looking to confront Lord Justice Munby, a judge who is president of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales, after a Family Law conference.
Campaigners, dressed as Iron Man, Honey Monster and Star Wars characters, protested peacefully outside the building where the Four Jurisdictions Family Law Conference was being hosted.
