Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, is rightly furious that she has been “reprimanded” for taking part in a parliamentary debate while cradling her three-month-old baby son, said Kate Townshend in The Independent.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news”, but most mothers have to leave their babies in the care of others when they go to work, said Joanna Williams in The Daily Telegraph. “Teachers, nurses and cleaners would all get short shrift if they turned up infant-in-tow.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
And MPs actually get “a pretty sweet deal” maternity-wise, said Sarah Ditum in The Times. The Commons has a subsidised nursery. MPs get six months’ maternity leave on full pay, along with a £30,000 grant for extra staff to help with constituency work.
It’s true that they can’t get full maternity cover, but there are reasons for that. MPs are “democratic representatives” elected by their constituents, not employees. It was deemed “constitutionally impossible” to allow Creasy to hire a parliamentary replacement during maternity leave. She can, however, authorise another MP to cast her vote by proxy.
A“better compromise” may be possible, but it’s not a case of rank injustice. The rule banning babies from debates has been applied inconsistently, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. In fact, infants have appeared in the chamber several times before without causing any fuss – including Creasy’s own first baby, and those of the Tory MP Kemi Badenoch and the Lib Dem Jo Swinson.
The Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has now wisely asked the Commons’ procedure committee to take a fresh look at the rules. Let’s hope a “more permanent and family-friendly policy” is soon “fitted to the cradle of democracy”.
-
Critics’ choice: The year’s top 10 moviesFeature ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘It Was Just an Accident’ stand out
-
The small Caribbean island courting crypto billionsUnder the Radar Crypto mogul Olivier Janssens plans to create a libertarian utopia on Nevis
-
Political cartoons for December 21Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include Christmas movies, AI sermons, and more
-
Pipe bombs: The end of a conspiracy theory?Feature Despite Bongino and Bondi’s attempt at truth-telling, the MAGAverse is still convinced the Deep State is responsible
-
Trump: Losing energy and supportFeature Polls show that only one of his major initiatives—securing the border—enjoys broad public support
-
Trump’s poll collapse: can he stop the slide?Talking Point President who promised to ease cost-of-living has found that US economic woes can’t be solved ‘via executive fiat’
-
Is a Reform-Tory pact becoming more likely?Today’s Big Question Nigel Farage’s party is ahead in the polls but still falls well short of a Commons majority, while Conservatives are still losing MPs to Reform
-
The military: When is an order illegal?Feature Trump is making the military’s ‘most senior leaders complicit in his unlawful acts’
-
Ukraine and Rubio rewrite Russia’s peace planFeature The only explanation for this confusing series of events is that ‘rival factions’ within the White House fought over the peace plan ‘and made a mess of it’
-
The US-Saudi relationship: too big to fail?Talking Point With the Saudis investing $1 trillion into the US, and Trump granting them ‘major non-Nato ally’ status, for now the two countries need each other
-
Nigel Farage: was he a teenage racist?Talking Point Farage’s denials have been ‘slippery’, but should claims from Reform leader’s schooldays be on the news agenda?
