Ps should not be allowed to bring babies to the House of Commons during the debate, a cross-party review recommends.
A procedural committee report was ordered in protest of Labor Party Stella Creasy being told that she could no longer take her baby son.
The group decided that if the MP wanted to “observe, start, speak, or intervene in the procedure,” the baby should not be taken to the room or nearby Westminster Hall.
However, they said there should be “some de facto discretion” that “should be exercised sparingly.”
However, the Commission returned to the “overwhelming balance of evidence” and extended the proxy vote for “serious long-term illness.”
Conservative lawmaker Karen Bradley, who chairs the committee, said discussions need to be scheduled in the coming weeks to discuss the extension of the proxy vote.
“On the balance of evidence received, the Commission also recommends that current rules be maintained and that members should not bring babies to the minutes of the House of Commons or Westminster Hall,” she adds. I did.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, chairman of the House of Commons, ordered a review in November after Ms. Creecy was told she couldn’t take her three-month-old son Pip to the debate.
Two mothers representing Walthamstow in London hoped that this review could “mix parenting and politics.”
MsCreasy was shocked when the Commons authorities emailed her rules banning children from being taken to the debate after she took Pip to Westminster Hall.
The MP described the boy as “as good as money” during the debate.
Last year, Sir Lindsey said she wouldn’t get angry in the room where her mother was breastfeeding.
However, the Commission’s report said it was a “long-standing practice” backed by a previous ruling that “babies should not be present.”
They said there were “some opportunities” for parliamentarians to bring the baby into the debate “without confusion”, which “contributed to confusion and gaps” between practices and rules.
Many MPs supported Ms. Creecy, and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said she had “a lot of sympathy” and would not be distracted by her baby.
However, Tory lawmaker Alicia Kerns claimed that the room was “no place” for the baby.
“I asked to leave some discussions to feed my child. I have never been turned down,” she said.
Last September, Ms. Creecy’s then-newborn wasn’t “rebuked” when she returned to Congress, but when she went up to the room to ask Jacob Lee Smog to help her new mother. I was tied up with.
The Commons leader replied that the rule was “fully rational and completely legal.”
Ms Creasy said she was “not surprised” by the recommendation.
She states: “Although many of us encouraged us to do so, this committee did not talk to one person outside Congress. Those who have children and need to be modernized.
“They aren’t the only ones working this way. Last year, there was no progress in parliament where proper childbirth or paternity policies were implemented, and from the IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) on providing proper childbirth. No progress was made on either paternity fund.
“Change only happens when we start listening to people outside the status quo.”
Former Liberal Democratic Party leader Joe Swinson is believed to be the first MP to take the baby to the room during the debate when he hugged his son on a green bench in the Commons in September 2018. Was there.