I am very fortunate to be an MP – it is the best job in the world and the satisfaction I get from helping my constituents cannot be surpassed. It is truly an honour and I wouldn’t change it for the world. However, it is time that Parliament upped its game, practiced what it preaches and finally made some much needed changes to its work practices and bought them in line with the 21st Century.
On Monday, the House of Commons voted on whether to implement a year-long pilot to facilitate baby leave for Members of Parliament. After my experience and the experience of other colleagues I supported the motion.
My personal experience being a new mother in parliament was not, I’m afraid to say, a positive one. Following a difficult pregnancy where I developed a heart condition and had a caesarean section, I was often tired and in severe pain, but I was still instructed on numerous occasions to drop what I was doing and travel to 200 miles to vote.
On these occasions I had to drag my three-week-old child with me halfway across the country. On one occasion I jumped on a train with my son, Clifford, voted, and got back to Yorkshire at 11pm, only to receive a call telling me to be back in London the next day. If this happened in any other workplace then some serious questions would need to be asked about that employers work practices. This happened to me on numerous occasions in 2017.
Ask any new parent and without doubt they will say that being a parent is incredible, but also a difficult and stressful time. All parents feel a huge amount of guilt when they are away from their young child and when they are forced to drag their baby from pillar to post. At the age now of 44 it is unlikely that I will have another child and in some ways it feels now that my only experience of maternity leave was taken from me. I had no choice but to support the government and I had to be in parliament to do that. Today, I still feel a great deal of guilt that I couldn’t be there for my child when he needed me most.
Examples like mine and the others I’ve heard recently are why this pilot is necessary, as it will enable the use of proxy voters in divisions of the House for parental absence. Under the pilot, if a parent is on maternity or paternity leave then another colleague from the Commons will be allocated as their proxy and vote on their behalf.
As things currently stand, if MPs need to be absent from their duties in the Commons they are ‘paired’ by the Whips’ office. This is where two Members from opposite sides agree to be absent at the same time so that the majority in a division is not affected. This system has been in place for many years and some are opposed to changing the rules, however, pairing is not always respected and it has unfortunately been known that some MPs, on purpose or by mistake, have still voted when paired.
I strongly believe that new parents deserve the right to pursue their goals and not to feel as if they have to choose between having a career and having children. They should be supported by their employers who want to retain talented people in their workforce.
The government has done much to support parents in recent years and improvements have been made. The introduction of the new shared parental leave system is to be praised, parents can now share up to a year’s leave after the birth of their child. It means that eligible families will have more choice about how they balance their work and childcare commitments.
In Parliament some initiatives have been implemented to try and address some of the issues surrounding the unusual aspects of being an MP, including an excellent crèche for young children, however, this still closes at 6pm and votes can often come past midnight.
Parliament needs to lead by example and be a beacon of light for how employers should behave surrounding parental leave. This is good for employers, parents and, most importantly, the baby.
I hope that in the future colleagues will be able to enjoy the precious time that comes from a parent spending time with his or her newborn child. More change is needed, but Monday’s motion will have a big impact and is an exciting step in making parliament a more constructive environment for MPs to deliver their duties.
Andrea Jenkyns is the Conservative MP for Morley and Outwood