Why the government is changing the law to avoid a minister resigning

The government is set to take drastic action to tackle an “outdated” rule that would force the country’s pregnant attorney general to resign from her cabinet position in order to go on maternity leave.

Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg will table a bill today to permit Suella Braverman, who is due to give birth within the next few weeks, to take six months’ leave on full pay.

Under the “antiquated” and “bonkers” current rules, “while there are provisions in place for junior ministers to take maternity leave, unbelievably there is currently no mechanism to let female secretaries of state and law officers take a temporary absence after they give birth”, says Politico London Playbook’s Alex Wickham.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

But with the arrangements proposed in the new bill, Braverman would effectively hold another office while a temporary replacement takes on the tasks of the attorney general.

Wickham reports that Boris Johnson “is expected to tell colleagues this is an outdated rule that has long needed fixing” and that he wants female ministers to get the maternity pay enjoyed by civil servants.

The issue hit the headlines back in 2019, when a then-pregnant Labour MP Stella Creasy said women were “forced to choose between being an MP and being a mum”.

Creasy told the BBC that Ipsa - the body that regulates MPs’ pay - made it “impossible” to fulfil her responsibilities to her constituents once her baby was born because it does not automatically provide paid cover for MPs on parental leave.

Months earlier, Labour MP Tulip Siddiq had postponed the date of her caesarean section by two days in order to vote against Theresa May’s Brexit deal in 2019.