Heavily pregnant MP called "discourteous"

Heavily pregnant Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead & Kilburn was labelled as “discourteous” by Eleanor Laing, the Commons deputy speaker, who went on to say that Siddiq “made women look bad” and told her to not “play the pregnancy card”, after she had left the camber to eat.

This incident occurred on Wednesday 6^th January and according to Hansard records, Tulip Siddiq had entered the debating chamber at 12:45pm. She delivered a speech at 2:30pm and left to eat at 2:45pm.

It is alleged that Eleanor Laing said, “People will think that women can't follow the conventions of the House because they're pregnant... If one makes a speech in the Chamber, it is courteous and required by the rules of the House that one stays in the Chamber- certainly for the following speech and usually, for at least two speeches thereafter. The people who have not done so today know who they are.”

During her campaign for the deputy speakership two years back, Laing was in support of making a more family-friendly parliamentary timetable.