A pregnant Labour MP is delaying the birth of her child so she can take part in tomorrow’s crunch Brexit vote.
Tulip Siddiq – a leading Remainer – has postponed the date of her caesarean section by two days so she can vote against the deal.
Rather than being in a labour ward in hospital in north London, she plans to be pushed through the division lobbies in a wheelchair by her husband Chris.
Revealing the drastic decision, she 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.’
Tulip Siddiq (pictured with her daughter Azalea) is delaying the birth of her child so she can take part in tomorrow’s crunch Brexit vote
She added: ‘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.’
Ms Siddiq, 36, Labour MP for Hampstead & Kilburn, had a difficult pregnancy with her first child Azalea, who is now two-years-old.
She had originally planned to have a caesarean section on February 4, but doctors advised she gives birth either today or tomorrow after she developed gestational diabetes.
But Ms Siddiq asked if she could delay the operation until Thursday and they have agreed.
She told the Evening Standard: ‘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.’
Ms Siddiq spent the weekend in hospital under observation after having steroid injections to help accelerate development of the baby’s lungs.
Doctors had wanted these injections to be taken 48-hours before the caesarean, but that would still have meant she would have been in hospital at the time of the vote.
Under usual circumstances, heavily pregnant MPs can be ‘paired’ with an MP from the opposing side, so that neither of them take part in the vote – therefore cancelling each other out.
But Ms Siddiq said she could not trust the Tories to stick to the system after they broke a pairing deal in a crunch Brexit Commons vote last summer.
Lib Dem Jo Swinson had been paired with Tory chairman Brandon Lewis so she did not have to leave her newborn baby at home to take part in the vote.
But Mr Lewis took part in the knife-edge vote on the customs union last night.
Number Ten insisted it had been a genuine mistake and that Theresa May apologised for it.
Ms Siddiq said the experience had sapped her trust in the pairing system.
She 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.’
Ms Siddiq is a leading Remainer and lost her seat in Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench after voting against the introduction of Article 50 which set the two-year clock ticking on Brexit talks.
Today, other female MPs who have had children called fr proxy voting rights.
Tulip Siddiq (pictured in the Commons last month) – a leading Remainer – has postponed the date of her caesarean section by two days so she can vote against the deal.
In a speech in Stoke on Trent just 36 hours before the titanic Commons showdown, Theresa May (pictured in Stoke on Trent today) pleaded with MPs to consider the ‘consequences’ of their actions for people’s faith in democracy
Labour MP Cat Smith MP, who returned to Westminster last week after the birth of her child, told MailOnline: ‘This is yet another staggering example of why we need to have a system of proxy voting for MPs who are heavily pregnant or have recently become parents.
‘Both the Chair and the Chief Whip of the Conservative party should be ashamed that their actions last summer have forced a heavily pregnant MP to vote because she is unable to trust that the pairing system will be honoured.
‘A failure to drag Parliament into the 21st century by introducing proper parental leave will mean many women continue to feel like politics isn’t for them. None of us would tolerate this kind of situation in any other workplace.
‘Parliamentary procedures must be updated to keep pace with a House of Commons that now has more women MPs than ever before.’
Labour MP Harriet Harman – known as the mother of the House because she is the longest serving female MPs raised the issue in the Commons today and demanded proxy voting.
She said: ‘She [Ms Siddiq] should not have to choose between going through the division lobbies in a wheelchair nine months pregnant having postponed her caesarean or losing her right to vote.’
Commons Speaker John Bercow said it is ‘extremely regrettable’ that proxy voting has not been introduced – and said many will find it ‘uncivilized’.
He said that if party chiefs can agree on allowing proxy voting to happen within the next 24 hours he will let Ms Siddiq a proxy vote have one.
He added: ‘I hope we can get progressive change and what better opportunity to do so than before our historic vote tomorrow.’