There were angry exchanges in the Commons last night as Labour accused the opposition of attempting to create a nation of mums paid to chauffeur, cook and clean. A controversial new bill will give parents, who choose not to work outside the home, the same rights as other workers, including sickness benefits, pension rights and holiday pay.

Under the proposed system, one parent could choose to become the ‘family worker’, and get paid for childcare, cooking, cleaning, taking children to school and other appointments, gardening, laundry and other tasks associated with the role. This, says former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, would ‘recognise every parent as a vital worker in society, and pay them a decent wage for a decent week’s work’.

The bill would guarantee minimum wage (currently £5.80 for adults aged 22 and older) for up to 40 hours a week for parents of pre-school children, and up to 25 hours a week for parents with school age children, as well as holiday entitlements and sick pay. ‘Half-hearted’ shrieked Margaret Beckett, ‘Is the right honourable member unaware that parents regularly work 100 hour weeks inside the home?’ ‘Untenable’ added Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as Shadow chancellor George Osborne said the new at-home wages would be paid for using money gleaned from the recent banker’s bonus tax.

Duncan Smith argued that the new bill would do away with the ‘nanny state’ and enable ‘mums to be mums’. This drew another storm of protest, particularly from MP mothers who, as Louise Ellman (Liverpool Riverside) argued, already ‘manage to be parents and work, thank you very much’ . But parenting bodies, including the It’s Hard Housework (IHH), welcome the proposed bill as a ‘Step in the right direction for one of society’s traditionally marginalised and under-appreciated groups: home-working parents’.

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