British MP postpones scheduled birth to vote on Brexit

Parliament chiefs have hit out after it emerged an MP had to put Brexit before her baby.

Tulip Siddiq has delayed a caesarean birth planned for Tuesday, the day of a crucial vote on the UK’s divorce deal with Brussels.

The postponement is necessary because the British parliament does not allow proxy votes for those ill or incapacitated.Siddiq, MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, is expected to arrive in a wheelchair for the vote before giving birth two days later.

Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, said it was lamentable that MPs had not already approved proxy voting.

“I believe it’s absolutely essential, not just in terms for the rights of the honourable member, but the reputation of this house as an institution approaching, or starting to take an interest in the modern world, that the honourable member for Hampstead and Kilburn should be facilitated tomorrow to vote.

“The notion that she should have to be wheeled through the division lobby I think would be regarded by very large numbers of people as completely uncivilised.”

Via Euronews