No breastfeeding ban in Commons

BREASTFEEDING will not be banned in Parliament, the new Commons Speaker has announced.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle said it was ‘up to a mother’ whether she chose to feed her baby in the House of Commons chamber or committee rooms.

In what appeared to be a swipe at his predecessor John Bercow, he also warned that Parliament’s ‘bullying culture’ was over.

The previous Speaker had been accused of bullying House of Commons staff and officials who worked with him.

Addressing a question about breastfeeding, Sir Lindsay told journalists yesterday: ‘I’m of the view there isn’t a policy, my view is that it is up to a mother.

‘I think it would be wrong for me as a male to dictate on that policy. If it happens, it happens. I wouldn’t be upset by it, let’s put it that way.’ Labour MP Harriet

Harman, who ran against Sir Lindsay, was one of the first MPs to breastfeed her child in the Commons in the 1980s.

However, Baroness Boothroyd ruled in 2000 when she was Speaker that breastfeeding was not allowed in the chamber.

An independent review in 2016 recommended breastfeeding should be permitted, because MPs with children can have to sit for hours during a debate.

Speaking at a Press Gallery lunch, Sir Lindsay also called for a kinder Parliament and admitted MPs ‘haven’t always been the best employers of their staff’.

Backing trade union recognition of staff, he said: ‘The way we were speaking to each other, the threats, the intimidation, it was not a nice place.

‘The bullying culture is over, we are not going to tolerate it.’

He said that the best recourse for the peerage row over Mr Bercow – who has accused the Government of preventing his elevation to the Lords – would be for his name to be put forward then his past conduct scrutinised.

Sir Lindsay said he was ‘personally not’ bullied when he served as Mr Bercow’s deputy.

But he added: ‘When somebody’s name goes forward to the Lords, people are checked and issues are reviewed about whether they are a fit person.’