Labour MP Stella Creasy has insisted ‘politics and parenting can mix’ after being told she could no longer bring her three-month-old son to the Commons,
metro.co.uk/2021/11/24/ste…
The mum-of-two, who represents Walthamstow, shared an email which was sent after she brought her baby Pip to a debate yesterday.
The private secretary, who Eleanor Laing, wrote to Ms Creasy: ‘We have been made aware that you were accompanied by your baby in Westminster Hall.'
‘I just wanted to make you aware that the recently published rules of behaviour and courtesies in the House of Commons states that, “You should not take your seat in the Chamber when accompanied by a child” (para 42).’
They added that the rules – updated in September – extend to debates held in Westminster Hall.
Speaker @LindsayHoyle_MP has now asked the Commons Procedure Committee to examine the rules around babies being brought into the House in response to the issue.
Ms Creasy previously brought her son to the chamber two months ago, when she claimed that she had to abandon her ‘baby proxy leave vote or else be reprimanded’ for speaking.
The politician also told Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority refused to fund maternity cover for her because ‘people needed to be able to speak in the chamber’.
Ms Creasy opened debate yesterday, where it was observed her son Pip had been ‘as good as gold’ during the proceedings.
She addressed the private secretary’s email later that day, in posts online with the hashtag ‘#21stCenturyCalling’.
The MP wrote: ‘Apparently Parliament has written a rule which means I can’t take my well-behaved, three-month-old, sleeping baby when I speak in [the] chamber.
‘Mothers in the mother of all parliaments are not to be seen or heard, it seems…’
Ms Creasy went on to direct her followers to join the This Mum Votes project, which supports mothers of young children to stand for public office.
She added: ‘Other countries show it doesn’t have to be this way.’
NZ prime minister Jacinda Ardern brought her baby daughter to the UN in 2018, where she made her first speech to the general assembly.
One year later, the speaker of the country’s parliament Trevor Mallard went viral after he was filmed cradling an MP’s baby boy during a debate.
Other MPs have since supported Ms Creasy, with @CarolineLucas describing the rule as ‘absurd’ and one which ‘absolutely needs to be challenged’.
She added babies are ‘far less disruptive than many braying backbenchers’.
Politicians have been bringing their young infants to parliament for more than a decade.
Alex Davies-Jones, Labour MP for Pontypridd, branded it a ‘complete contradiction’. She had previously been told by Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle that she could breastfeed in the chamber.
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