Order! There’s a baby in the House
IT is a place not unfamiliar with the sound of wailing... and has even witnessed its fair share of politicians sleeping like babies.
But Scots MP Jo Swinson’s baby son Gabriel set a good example to MPs yesterday as he sat quietly on the green benches during a debate in the House of Commons.
It is thought to be the first time a child has been brought into the chamber during a Commons debate.
The Liberal Democrat deputy leader appeared in the chamber with Gabriel to listen to the closing remarks of a discussion about proxy voting, which could allow MPs on maternity and paternity leave to nominate a colleague to cast their vote in their absence.
Labour’s Harriet Harman, the Mother of the House as the longest-serving female MP, stroked Gabriel’s head after sitting next to Miss Swinson while Speaker John Bercow also shared a word with the mother and child as they left.
Gabriel, who was born in June, is her second child with her husband and former Lib Dem MP Duncan Hames.
East Dunbartonshire MP Miss Swinson, 38, earlier warned the debate was ‘too little, too late’ and referenced the debacle around her failed pairing with Tory chairman Brandon Lewis on key Brexit legislation.
He broke an agreement not to vote in key Commons votes so the Lib Dem MP could care for her newborn son.