Butlins helped parents’ group lobby against term-time holiday ban

Media House International chair Jack Irvine says he was approached to help with the campaign, which benefited the holiday company's sales

Parents face a fine of £60 increasing to £120 if they take their child out of school without permission (Getty)

The owners of Butlins holiday group helped fund parents’ campaigns against the term-time holiday ban, it has been revealed.

Bourne Leisure, which also owns Haven caravan parks and Warner Leisure Hotels, provided the Parents Want a Say grassroots organisation with free use of its media agency for PR and lobbying services.

Jack Irvine, executive chairman of Media House International, said Bourne Leisure had asked him to help with the “very interesting campaign”.

He told the Sunday Times: “Butlins, like every other holiday company in the UK, has quite a long holiday season, yet there is this mad rush for places during the very brief six-week school holiday period.

“Anything to ease that pressure is good news and good business.”

The findings follow a long legal battle lost by Isle of Wight father Jon Platt, who was taken to the Supreme Court after refusing to pay a £60 school absence fine.

Mr Platt had been penalised for taking his daughter out of school during term-time for a holiday to Florida, sparking debate over school attendance measures and exploitative pricing set by holiday companies.

Parents Want a Say is one of several campaign groups set up by parents against a change in the law brought in during 2013 that meant schools could not grant leave to pupils during term time outside of “exceptional circumstances”, for instance an illness or family death.

Media House International lobbied MPs on behalf of the campaign group and sent out press releases accusing the government of “unfairly criminalising hard-working families” with the ruling.

The agency also wrote letters to the Department for Education, the Local Government Association, the National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of Teachers.

Mr Irvine added that it struck him as “illogical” and “redolent of the nanny state” that parents were allowed to home-school their children but not take school pupils out on holiday for a few days..

He said Media House International had not charged Bourne Leisure any extra for its work with Parents Want a Say between 2014 and 2016.