A Labour MP has delayed giving birth in order to vote on the prime minister’s Brexit deal, reigniting the debate over proxy voting in Parliament. Tulip Siddiq has been advised by doctors to have a caesarean
section, but agreed to push the procedure back to Thursday so she can vote on Tuesday.
The Hampstead and Kilburn MP plans to go through the lobby in a wheelchair. Fellow Labour MP Harriet Harman said Ms Siddiq “should not have to choose” between her caesarean and her vote.
Speaker of the Commons John Bercow said that a proxy vote for Ms Siddiq would be his “preference”, but it was not in his power to grant it. However, he was happy for her to be “nodded through”.
This process normally means an MP’s vote can be counted if they are anywhere on the parliamentary estate, rather than going through the voting lobby.
It has traditionally been used for unwell MPs, such as during the votes on the Maastricht Treaty in the 1990s, where some were driven onto the estate by ambulance to be “nodded through” on crucial votes.
Ms Siddiq told the Evening Standard that she had a difficult first pregnancy with her two-year-old daughter, and was originally due to give birth to her second child by elective caesarean section on 4 February.
