Commons no place for a baby, says Rutland and Melton MP

Alicia Kearns announced the birth of her second child in January 2021

The House of Commons chamber is "no place" for a baby, MP and mother Alicia Kearns has said.

Her comments follow calls for members to be allowed to bring their babies into parliamentary debates

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has suggested he backs allowing it as long as the child is not disruptive.

But Ms Kearns says she has always been able to leave the chamber to feed her daughter and does not need to have it "live-streamed to the world".

MPs are allowed to take their babies with them when voting but not when participating in debates, although the Speaker and his deputies have exercised their discretion on the issue in the past.

Sir Lindsay has requested a review into whether the rules should be updated following an outcry over Labour's Stella Creasy being told she can no longer have her infant son with her.

Stella Creasy sat in the Commons chamber with her son in September

But Rutland and Melton MP Alicia Kearns, who announced the birth of her second child in January, said she was against babies being allowed into the chamber.

The Conservative member said: "I've asked to leave debates to feed my child a few times - I have never been turned down.

"This is a debate about childcare that is wrongly being presented as one of rights and representation.

"In no professional workplace would you feed your baby in a meeting with your chief executive, or in a pitch to new clients, or on a stage in front of shareholders."

The cross-party Commons Procedure Committee has been asked to examine the rules around babies in the chamber.

Sir Lindsay told the Daily Telegraph his view was that the "chair on the day has got to make a decision".

Referring to Ms Creasy's son, he said: "I saw that baby come into the chamber when I was in the chair. And did it affect the debate? No. Was it a quiet and peaceful baby? Absolutely. Did it disrupt? Not in the slightest. So did it matter to me? Absolutely not."