In UK Parliament with baby: MP's call to order creates debate

British MP Stella Creasy with her baby in the House of Commons in London, November 24, 2021 © AFP - PRU

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

An angry UK MP.

Stella Creasy came to work in the hemicycle with her 3 month old baby.

She was reprimanded by the parliamentary authorities.

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With our correspondent in London,

The Labor MP is seated in Parliament. She is carrying her baby in a sling. He is calm, he is sleeping. She is still breastfeeding him, which is why she does not leave him in the nursery. The next day, Stella Creasy receives an email informing her that the regulations forbid her to be accompanied by a child. She immediately posted a photo of this post on Twitter and responded to interviews. She expresses her incomprehension in the face of this reprimand.

“ 

 The system must evolve, she adds.

Women should be able to have children and be in politics.

Apparently Parliament has written a rule which means I can't take my well behaved, 3-month old, sleeping baby when I speak in chamber.

(Still no rule on wearing masks btw).

Mothers in the mother of all parliament are not to be seen or heard it seems…. # 21stCenturyCalling pic.twitter.com/rKB7WbYQrL

- stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) November 23, 2021

Going out on a limb here and suggest Julia same sort of person who would criticize me for being AWOL if I actually did as she suggests and abandoned my constituents for six months- as without maternity cover I don't actually get maternity leave as no one else to do my job… 🤷‍♀️ https://t.co/AUZ9JVSX3h

- stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) November 24, 2021

Deeming " 

 " that young parents can participate fully in parliamentary work, Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle said "

 " and that they " 

 ". The announcer thus announced that a committee would examine the question so that " 

 " after being seized by the deputy Alex Davies-Jones of an event which left her, with other mothers, " 

 ”. And to denounce a contradiction: last year, Lindsay Hoyle had allowed the MP to come with her baby.

This morning I have written to @CommonsSpeaker seeking urgent clarification on whether or not babies are allowed in the Chamber after @stellacreasy was told they weren't and I was told they were.

🤦‍♀️

See my letter below.

pic.twitter.com/sA4RmKmRd7

- Alex Davies-Jones MP (@AlexDaviesJones) November 24, 2021

Activist for the inclusion of mothers in politics

Stella Creasy has long campaigned for a better inclusion of mothers in politics, had already come accompanied by her son or previously by her daughter.

She had thus appeared in the House of Commons at the end of September with her newborn baby to demand that mothers be supported rather than " 

" when they returned to Parliament.

Speaking to Times Radio, Stella Creasy “ 

” the promised changes: “ 

 "

Maternity "reprimanded"

The way in which deputies and other women politicians reconcile their work and the life of young parents has been under scrutiny for some time in several countries.

In 2018, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern became a symbol of working mothers by bringing her baby Neve to the UN General Assembly in New York.

Since then, a Danish MP had been asked to leave her chamber with her five-month-old daughter.

" 

 ," the president of the chamber, Pia Kjærsgaard, told him.

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