UK lawmaker reprimanded for bringing baby to work

Stella Creasy, an MP for the opposition Labour Party, said she was told by a representative of Parliament’s lower house that it was against the rules to bring a child to a debate at Westminster Hall after she attended with her son on Tuesday. Creasy shared an email sent to her by the private secretary to the chairman of ways and means, which references rules published in “We are currently in communication with Stella Creasy about this matter,” they added.Creasy told the BBC that while she wouldn’t bring her other child, a toddler, into work “because she would find everything breakable or spreadable in the parliamentary chamber within five minutes and cause havoc,” her infant son was “completely silent.” Referencing the new rules published in September, Creasy, who said she had brought her first child to the House, said: “I don’t understand what has changed. What I do understand is that there are barriers to getting mums involved in politics and I think that damages our political debates.” Creasy lost a battle with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority this summer after she was told she could not hire a locum to cover her maternity leave after the birth of her second child.In the US, Senator Tammy Duckworth made history in 2018 as she became the first senator to cast a vote on the Senate floor with her newborn by her side, days after the Senate changed longstanding rules to allow newborns onto the Senate floor during votes for the first time. The rule change, voted through unanimously, was made to accommodate senators with newborn babies, allowing them to bring a child under the age of 1 onto the Senate floor and breastfeed them during votes.In 2019, New Zealand Labour MP Tāmati Coffey brought his six-week-old son to the debating chamber, where the child was later held by the house speaker. And Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who became New Zealand’s first premier to take maternity leave and the world’s second elected leader to give birth in office, made history by bringing her three-month-old daughter into the United Nations assembly hall in 2018.But lawmakers have been criticized for caring for their children at work, including Spanish MP Carolina Bescansa, who in 2016 provoked criticism by taking her baby into parliament and breastfeeding him during its first session.