Lib Dem new mother says Tories cheated
TORY chairman Brandon Lewis was last night accused of breaking an agreement with a Lib Dem MP who couldn’t make the crucial customs union vote because she had just given birth.
Jo Swinson, the party’s deputy leader, is at home with her twoweek-old son Gabriel and was ‘paired’ with Mr Lewis for the critical vote that could have caused a crisis had the Government lost.
Under ‘pairing’ arrangements parties agree two MPs – one from each side – are excused if they cannot attend so their absence does not influence the final outcome. A furious Miss Swinson said she had been ‘assured’ that pregnant MPs would be paired when necessary – and she criticised the Government for betraying her trust.
She asked Theresa May: ‘How low will your government stoop?’ She continued: ‘Today your government broke that agreement – Brandon Lewis paired with me but voted. Desperate stuff.
‘This is calculated, deliberate breaking of trust by whips and chief whip Julian Smith to win at all costs. Brandon abstained in afternoon divisions, but voted in the two crunch votes after 6pm. There’s a word for it – cheating.’
She found support from Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who wrote on Twitter: ‘So government refuses to bring in proxy voting for new mums. Then promises they’ll do pairing instead? Then breaks promise to scrape through vote? Disgraceful on all fronts. Disenfranchising MPs. Discriminating against women. Dishonest.’
A Tory source attempted to claim the vote was an accident and Mr Lewis had ‘messed up’.
It emerged yesterday Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable was at a meeting discussing how to stop Brexit when he and predecessor Tim Farron missed two knife-edge Commons votes on Monday.