Stella Creasy: “Coronavirus is like a magnifying lens on inequalities”
Source: New States Man
She thought she had everything lined up perfectly. Stella Creasy, the Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow, would get off at Green Park station and walk her seven-month-old daughter, Hettie, in the pram to Westminster. This would get Hettie to sleep just in time and – hopefully – long enough for Creasy to be present for an urgent question on the Northern Ireland abortion regulations that she helped champion through parliament.
“Two minutes before that question time started, boom, I hear her crying and I thought well I’ve got no choice but to bring her in. So I took a whole load of food in with me and kind of stuffed her mouth in the hope that she’d be quiet.”
The careful, desperate strategising around a baby’s naptimes will sound familiar to parents of young children. Video from that day last month of Creasy holding her daughter while addressing fellow MPs was an inspiring sight for many who juggle work and childcare. But behind that footage was the story of a dilemma. That week, Creasy, had already withdrawn from asking questions because the current guidance to MPs is that they can’t bring anyone else with them to parliament. Given the current crisis, MPs can still attend parliamentary debates virtually, but they must vote in person.
Click here to read the full article published by New States Man on 9 July 2020.
She thought she had everything lined up perfectly. Stella Creasy, the Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow, would get off at Green Park station and walk her seven-month-old daughter, Hettie, in the pram to Westminster. This would get Hettie to sleep just in time and – hopefully – long enough for Creasy to be present for an urgent question on the Northern Ireland abortion regulations that she helped champion through parliament.
“Two minutes before that question time started, boom, I hear her crying and I thought well I’ve got no choice but to bring her in. So I took a whole load of food in with me and kind of stuffed her mouth in the hope that she’d be quiet.”
The careful, desperate strategising around a baby’s naptimes will sound familiar to parents of young children. Video from that day last month of Creasy holding her daughter while addressing fellow MPs was an inspiring sight for many who juggle work and childcare. But behind that footage was the story of a dilemma. That week, Creasy, had already withdrawn from asking questions because the current guidance to MPs is that they can’t bring anyone else with them to parliament. Given the current crisis, MPs can still attend parliamentary debates virtually, but they must vote in person.
Click here to read the full article published by New States Man on 9 July 2020.