MPs with new babies may get 6 months off

MPS with new babies will get an allowance so they can employ a stand-in to vote on their behalf under a plan backed by John Bercow.

Both mothers and fathers will be entitled to six months of paid maternity or paternity leave, during which they will be able to appoint a proxy to take part in Commons votes.

A parliamentary committee chaired by the Commons Speaker is set to recommend the plan this week after it was proposed by Harriet Harman.

The former Labour deputy leader, who has had three children while an MP, says a ‘proper system of baby leave’ in Parliament is ‘long overdue’.

under the current system, MPs are not considered employees and are therefore not given formal parental leave, and cannot vote if they choose to stay at home.

The Commons reference group on representation and inclusion is looking to adopt the plan as part of new arrangements for maternity, paternity, parental, adoption and caring leave.The independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which oversees MPs’ pay, has said it is ‘supportive in principle’ of the proposal for six months’ paid leave.

Setting out her plan earlier this year, Miss Harman said the present arrangements were ‘unacceptable’.

‘The baby needs time with the mother, the mother needs time with the baby and the constituency needs to be properly represented at all times,’ she said.

She argued that MPs should be able to nominate a full-time paid ‘maternity cover’ to represent the constituency in their absence.

Since 2010, 17 babies have been born to 12 female MPs. in 2014, Duncan Hames became the first MP to carry a baby through the voting lobby of the Commons after a rule change in Parliament. The Liberal Democrat, who is married to exminister Jo Swinson, was looking after their six-month-old son when the division bell rang.

Since June, the absence of a Tory majority has led to MPs being called into Westminster from maternity leave or hospital beds for knife-edge votes. new parents, who are not MPs, can take up to 50 weeks of leave – 37 of which is paid – that can be shared by mothers and fathers.