Hewitt: We got it wrong on mothers

Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt today admitted the Government had undervalued stay-at-home mothers during its six years in power.

The minister partly blamed the Women's Equality Unit in her own department, which put out a report saying that mothers who stayed at home did not "benefit the nation".

Key policies such as tax credits for working mothers and support for childcare had left parents who stayed at home feeling worthless, she said.

Normally a Cabinet ally of Chancellor Gordon Brown, she was speaking only weeks before his pre-Budget report which is expected to offer tax breaks to families.

Ms Hewitt said she now wished she had worked parttime when she was a young mother. Instead, she was press secretary to former Labour leader Neil Kinnock.

The minister, who has Cabinet responsibility for women's issues, said: "We have got to ... value the unpaid work that people do within their families." This included fathers and those looking after elderly and disabled relatives.