MP rebuked for bringing her baby to Commons
...but Tory asks why she thinks she’s so special she can’t fund childcare
A LABOUR MP who was rebuked for bringing her baby to a Commons debate against the rules faced a backlash yesterday, with one Tory asking what made her ‘so special’.
Conservative MP Scott Benton also questioned why Stella Creasy needed to bring threemonth-old Pip to work.
He tweeted: ‘Parents who get paid a fraction of what you do pay for childcare and juggle responsibilities so they can go to work. What makes you so special?’
Miss Creasy replied: ‘We don’t have employment rights so don’t have maternity cover to be able to do juggling, hence needing to take baby with me.’
Miss Creasy was sent an official warning after she took Pip into Westminster Hall, which adjoins the Commons chamber, on Tuesday. The email from the private secretary to Deputy Speaker
‘Rules change with the times’
Dame Eleanor Laing referred to rules that state MPs should not take a seat in the chamber ‘when accompanied by your child’.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has now said the rules will be reviewed because it was ‘extremely important’ that parents could participate fully in parliamentary work.
Sir Lindsay said he was unaware that a warning was going to be issued to Miss Creasy, although he accepted it ‘correctly reflects the current rules’.
But in a statement to MPs yesterday, he said: ‘Rules have to be seen in context and they change with the times. This House has to be able to function professionally and without disturbance. However, sometimes there may be occasions when the chair can exercise discretion.’
Miss Creasy said she hoped the review ‘means some of these rules will be reviewed to make parenting and politics possible to mix’.
Pip was ‘as good as gold’ during Tuesday’s debate, for which he was praised by MPs, she said. She added: ‘It’s a bit of a mystery to me because I have two children and I’ve taken them both previously into the chamber as needs must to make sure my constituents have representation.’
MPs can take informal maternity leave with six months’ full pay and can vote by proxy, but they do not receive cover for their role.
Rules were recently changed to let ministers take maternity leave rather than quit their position.
Boris Johnson appeared to support Miss Creasy’s position yesterday. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘We completely understand the difficulties faced by MPs who are new mothers, new fathers or adopted parents. Parliament has made some positive changes. We very much want to see further improvements.’
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab also said he had ‘a lot of sympathy’ for Miss Creasy and insisted he would not be distracted at the despatch box by a baby. He added: ‘We need to make sure our profession is brought into the modern world.’
Former Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson is thought to have been the first MP to take her baby into the chamber during a debate in September 2018. Tory MP Chloe Smith interrupted maternity leave to take part in a vote to trigger Brexit in February 2017 with four-monthold son Alastair, dubbed the ‘Brexit baby’. In December 2019 Labour’s Ellie Reeves was sworn in carrying her newborn.