MP Amesbury blasts Tories over sick vote
MIKE Amesbury has blasted the Government after MPs were forced to attend Parliament last Wednesday when incapacitated.
In a break from parliamentary convention, sick and pregnant MPs were forced to attend the ‘meaningful vote’ on the Brexit amendment rather than be ‘nodded through.’
Bradford West MP Naz Shah checked herself out of hospital, on morphine and in her pyjamas, against doctors’ wishes after a hit and run collision, and had to be pushed through the lobby in a wheelchair carrying a sick bucket.
Heavily-pregnant North West Durham MP Laura Pidcock also had to make it through the lobby despite serious back pain for the crunch Brexit vote.
Representatives for Mr Amesbury said: “Parliamentary convention usually allows for incapacitated or ill MPs to be ‘nodded through’, by whips if they make it onto the Parliamentary estate, without having to leave their vehicle and enter the House Of Commons, and it is rare for this convention to be cast aside.
“On this occasion, the Conservative ‘whips’ – MPs who direct MPs on how to vote in Parliament - refused to budge. Ms Shah is now back in hospital after a round trip of over eight hours.”
Mr Amesbury, MP for Weaver Vale, is one of 40 Labour MPs who signed a letter from Shadow early years minister Tracy Brabin to Government chief whip Julian Smith calling the treatment of MPs during ● Wednesday night’s EU Withdrawal Bill amendment votes ‘pretty shabby and unedifying’.
He said: “It’s outrageous that someone so clearly severely ill should be treated in this way.
“Convention already exists that would have allowed my colleague to vote while not having to be put through this ordeal.”
The Government won the vote on the EU Withdrawal Bill by 319 to 303.
Other MPs, including former minister Jo Swinson, are trying to push through rule reforms which would see pregnant Parliamentarians – or those who have just had a baby – given the right to nominate a proxy vote so they would not have to attend the Commons in person.
The letter in full reads: “Dear Julian Smith,
“We the undersigned write to you to express our anger regarding the actions of your office yesterday during the ‘Meaningful Vote’.
“Members of Parliament were required to attend the vote when in pain, seriously unwell, and in one case in a wheelchair while on morphine. Of course we understand this was an important and potentially tight vote and in such circumstances we understand attendance is vital.
“However there is a well-used convention in Parliament called ‘nodding through’, which allows MPs who are too unwell or unable to spend long periods in the House Of Commons waiting to vote, to have their votes recorded in their absence with the permission of both sets of whips.
“We have been made aware that your office were unwilling to participate in this practice yesterday.
“We understand there was an initial agreement that was withdrawn at the last moment which meant a colleague wearing only her hospital nightwear had to go through the lobby, in a wheelchair, heavily medicated, nauseous and barely able to say her name. “Pretty shabby and unedifying. “Of course we understand that in the heat of politics, rash decisions can be made and that compassion for another’s wellbeing might not be an immediate priority.
“However, yesterday’s actions should be a powerful indication that things must change.
“We feel that having watched our colleagues suffer yesterday, the time has now come to develop a kinder and more humane workplace and a first step towards that would be to allow poorly colleagues to be automatically nodded through irrespective of party politics.
“We look forward to hearing your response.”