New mothers will have legal rights to breast-feed their babies in shops, cafés and on public transport in a sweeping extension of sex discrimination law unveiled yesterday.

The move comes amid alarm that years of government campaigning have failed to hammer home the message that “breast is best”, and concern that more needs to be done to increase breast-feeding rates.

The latest data show that less than 1 per cent of new mothers follow international advice to breast-feed exclusively for six months. While 76 per cent of mothers start out breast- feeding, most resort to formula within the first six weeks.

The measure is contained in a Green Paper on the new Single Equality Bill, which pulls together all the various pieces of discrimination legislation. It requires that mothers with babies under a year old should not be prevented from breast-feeding “discreetly” in cafés, shops and on public transport.

However, the change falls short of the simple legal change introduced in Scotland, which made it an offence to stop a woman breast-feeding her baby anywhere in public, backed up by a fine of £2,000.

Campaigners said they were disappointed that the Government had not followed the Scottish example, but welcomed it as a step in the right direction.The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) said that it was delighted that the need to protect women who breast-feed in public had at last been recognised. “According to the Government’s own figures, 13 per cent of women in England and 16 per cent in Wales have been asked to stop or made to feel uncomfortable when breast-feeding in a public place.”

Rosie Dodds, policy researcher at the NCT, said: “We regularly receive calls from distressed mothers who have been told they can’t breast-feed in restaurants or shops, or even in schools and health centres. This leaves mothers feeling embarrassed, shocked and angry.

“However, we think it’s important that it should be extended to protect all breast-feeding mothers, even if their child is more than a year old.”

The NCT publicly criticised McDonald’s last year for telling customers that they had to do their breast-feeding in the lavatory, awarding the fast-food chain its “booby prize”. Other businesses singled out for criticism included Asda, Tesco and Boots.

Angela Smith, Minister at the Department of Communities, which produced the Green Paper, said that the right of café owners to prevent women feeding their babies was out of date.

“It is ridiculous that while newsagents have all varieties of breasts on display, women discreetly feeding their babies can be asked to leave the premises,” she said.

“When we have spoken to women, they have said they are often made to feel embarrassed about feeding in public, so we want to encourage them to do it by making them feel at ease. If they are not being discreet that is a different matter.”

The Bill will also force private clubs to give women members the same right as men. That will bring an end to golf clubs restricting women members to playing at particular times, or banning them from certain areas of the clubhouse. It will also stop about half of all working men’s clubs offering half membership to women.

However, equality groups said that was a gimmick, and the Green Paper was a missed opportunity.

Jenny Watson, chairwoman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said: “Women working full time still suffer a 17 per cent pay gap that has barely shifted in a generation.

“We hope the consultation will prompt a debate that results in transformative suggestions on how to address this problem rather than tackling them through the tribunal system when they do.”

Kevin Smyth, general secretary of the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union, said he thought the union would support the new laws as “the way forward”.

More than half of the 2,500 clubs within the organisation have already given women full and equal rights, he said.

‘We still need to behave sensitively’

Isobel Hoyle is starting to wean her daughter Mollie after breast-feeding for almost six months. Living in a child-friendly suburb of North London she has never encountered a problem in the independent cafés where she has fed her baby. But she acknowledges that London is different from other parts of the country, where women are often asked to breast-feed in the lavatory, or leave.

“It is the norm around here. But there are obviously many mothers who don’t have the option of popping into the sort of cafés we have, and they are the ones who will benefit most from this new law,” she said.

However, the 30-year-old solicitor said she believed that mothers should behave sensitively. “There is no point making other people feel uncomfortable.”

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