London Evening Standard/London
Women MPs should not be allowed to take their newborn babies into the Commons when voting, a senior Conservative MP said yesterday.
Former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth said the voting lobbies were not a “creche”.
He spoke out after Equalities Minister Jo Swinson, who gave birth to a baby boy before Christmas, criticised the ban on bringing infants into the Commons voting areas.
The Liberal Democrat MP, who is married to Duncan Hames MP, an aide to Nick Clegg, told of the “challenges” faced by new mothers in Parliament, including when voting.
“There has been a change that women who are breastfeeding can be nodded through,” said Swinson, 33, who gave birth to a son, Andrew, on December 22. “But I think when you are perfectly capable of walking through the lobby holding a small baby, I think there would be a better way of just allowing that. But Parliament moves but slowly,” she added.
She insisted that carrying a baby when voting would not cause “too much of a disruption”, adding: “You can take a sword through there but you can’t a baby.”
But Aldershot MP Sir Gerald dismissed bringing babies into the Commons when votes were on as “wholly inappropriate”.
“The voting lobbies of the House of Commons are not a creche,” he said. “We are engaged in serious business of running the country. Of course, mothers will want to look after their young children, but I don’t see the child’s welfare is served by taking them through the lobbies.”