The newly elected leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, has revealed why his name is not on the birth certificate of his 16-month-old son Daniel.
Ed, 40, who is due to have a second child in November with his partner Justine Thornton, admitted on morning TV that he was really embarrassed about it.
He explained that his missing name was a simple mistake, due to the fact that the couple are not married.
"What happens is if you are partners, rather than married – as we found out after the event – is that when Justine went to register Daniel, she came back and said, 'You will never believe it, I can’t register you. You have got to go along to the council offices and make sure you do it," Ed told the presenters of Daybreak. "I am really embarrassed I haven’t," he added.
It’s been suggested that Ed has been "too busy" to add his name to the birth certificate, and it seems he's still in no big rush to correct his mistake. He's now planning to register as Daniel's father after the birth of his second baby later this year.
"We have got a second one on the way and I am going to make sure I do two for the price of one," he joked.
So what are the rules about registering your name on a birth certificate?
You are legally required to register your child's birth at your local register office within 42 days of your baby being born in England and Wales.
If you are married, only one of you needs to go to the register office in order to include both names on the certificate.
However, if you are not married both partners need to be present.
In Ed’s case, because a birth certificate has already been issued for Daniel, the birth will need to be re-registered to create a new birth record with both Justine and Ed’s names on it. This can be done at any time after the birth.
The law was recently changed to allow women in same sex partnerships to have both of their names appear on a birth certificate.
