Pregnant MP Tulip Siddiq today revealed she will delay the birth of her child in order to vote against Theresa May’s Brexit deal tomorrow.
The Labour MP for Hampstead & Kilburn has postponed the date of her caesarean section by two days and intends to be taken through the lobby in a wheelchair by her husband Chris.
The 36-year-old said: “If my son enters the world even one day later than the doctors advised, but it’s a world with a better chance of a strong relationship between Britain and Europe, then that’s worth fighting for.”
Ms Siddiq had a difficult first pregnancy with her daughter Azalea, now two, and had originally been due to give birth by elective caesarean section on February 4.
However, after developing gestational diabetes, doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead advised she deliver the baby at 37 weeks, either today or tomorrow.
She asked medical staff if she could shift the date back to Thursday, which they agreed to.
Ms Siddiq spent the weekend in hospital under observation after having steroid injections that must be taken before the birth to help accelerate development of the baby’s lungs.
Doctors had wanted her to have these injections 48-hours before the caesarean, but that would still have meant she would have been in hospital at the time of the vote.
She had no adverse reaction, and is now free to travel into Parliament tomorrow.
She said: “The Royal Free has been very clear on their legal and health duties. This is a high risk pregnancy and I am doing this against doctor’s advice.”
Usually, heavily pregnant MPs, those with newborns and the sick are able to be “paired” with an opposition party member who also cannot vote so the overall result is not affected.
But after Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis broke a pairing arrangement with Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Jo Swinson in July 2018, Ms Siddiq said she could no longer trust the system.
Mr Lewis later apologised and said he had voted “by accident”.
Ms Siddiq said: “If the pairing system is not honoured, there’s nothing I can do, and it’s going to be a very close vote. I’ve had no pressure at all from the whips to come and vote but this is the biggest vote of my lifetime.
“I’ve sat down with my husband Chris and he said to me this is my choice but that he would support me.
“I am thinking about my child’s future when I made this decision – his future in the world. If it comes to an absolute emergency, I will of course prioritise the baby’s health.
“I’m choosing in a sense between career and my family life and I feel it’s totally unfair and if we want more women in politics and we want people to come from different backgrounds, we need change and to introduce proxy voting.”
The staunch Remainer lost her seat in Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench after voting against the introduction of Article 50 and she is campaigning for a second referendum. Her constituency voted 76 percent Remain.
The Commons’ Procedure Committee has researched how proxy voting could be introduced and a caucus of pregnant MPs are set to lobby the Speaker for this to be introduced in Parliament as soon as possible.
In the Commons this afternoon, the Government was chastised by the Speaker for not introducing proxy voting quick enough, despite MPs debating it more than a year ago.
John Bercow said it was damaging to the reputation of Parliament that no system had been put in place to enable pregnant and new mums to vote without having to appear in person.
Speaking to the Commons today after the issue during a point of order, Mr Bercow said: “It is extremely regrettable that almost a year after the first debate and over four months after the second debate this change has not been made. This is frankly lamentable, and very disadvantageous and injurious to the reputation of this house.”
He urged Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom to organise a proxy vote for Ms Siddiq immediately or allow her to vote from her hospital bed.
This would extend the custom of chief whips “nodding through” a seriously ill person who is able to get to Parliament, even if they cannot physically walk through the lobby.
He said: “I hope we can get progressive change, and what better opportunity to do so than before our historic vote tomorrow.”
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