On 10th July 2011, on the 10th anniversary of Fathers 4 Justice, the founding father of F4J, 44-year-old father-of-three, Matt O’Connor, began a seven-day fast for equal parenting rights on behalf of fathers and grandparentsoutside the Oxfordshire home of Prime Minister David Cameron. This small personal protest, called ‘Hunger4Justice’, was the antithesis of previous F4J protests. It was ignited by comments Mr Cameron made on Fathers Day in which he labelled all dads as ‘runaways’. But it also underlined the seriousness and maturity of a new campaign resolutely determined to hold the Prime Minister to pre-election promises made to F4J in 2010 by the Conservative Party. On the 15th July the Prime Minister wrote to Mr O’Connor giving assurances ref the Conservative Party’s position on family law reform In Mr O’Connor’s response to the Prime Minister on 1st August 2011, he said, ‘Whilst I applaud much of the underlying sentiment contained in your letter, it falls depressingly short in dealing with the issues I raised in my letter, not least the breaches of your party’s pre-election promises made to Fathers 4 Justice.’ ‘I welcome your acknowledgement that ‘some’ fathers are prevented from seeing and raising their children and that this is wrong. I also agree that the minority of fathers who walk away from their responsibilities should be condemned as I would have hope you would also condemn those mothers who deny their children a right to see their fathers.’
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