British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq has deferred the birth of her second child for the crucial vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal slated for Tuesday.
Published : 14 Jan 2019, 10:19 PM
She has postponed the date of her caesarean section by two days and plans to be taken through the lobby in a wheelchair by her husband Chris, the London Evening Standard reported on Monday.
“If my son enters the world even one day later than the doctors advised, but it’s a world with a better chance of a strong relationship between Britain and Europe, then that’s worth fighting for,” it quoted the 36-year-old Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn as saying.
Bangladeshi-origin Tulip is the daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana.
She had a difficult first pregnancy with her daughter Azalea, now 2-year-old, and had originally been due to give birth by elective caesarean section on Feb 4, according to the Evening Standard.
However, after developing gestational diabetes, doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead advised she deliver the baby at 37 weeks, either on Monday or Tuesday.
She asked medical staff if she could shift the date back to Thursday, which they agreed to.
Tulip spent the weekend in hospital under observation after having steroid injections that must be taken before the birth to help accelerate development of the baby’s lungs.
Doctors had wanted her to have these injections 48-hours before the caesarean, but that would still have meant she would have been in hospital at the time of the vote.
She had no adverse reaction, and is now free to travel into Parliament Tuesday.
“The Royal Free has been very clear on their legal and health duties. This is a high risk pregnancy and I am doing this against doctor’s advice,” she told the Evening Standard.
Usually, heavily pregnant MPs, those with newborns and the sick are able to be “paired” with an opposition party member who also cannot vote so the overall result is not affected.
But after Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis broke a pairing arrangement with Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Jo Swinson in July 2018, Tulip said she could no longer trust the system.
Lewis later apologised and said he had voted “by accident”.
“If the pairing system is not honoured, there’s nothing I can do, and it’s going to be a very close vote. I’ve had no pressure at all from the whips to come and vote but this is the biggest vote of my lifetime,” the Evening Standard quoted Tulip as saying.
“I am thinking about my child’s future when I made this decision - his future in the world. If it comes to an absolute emergency, I will of course prioritise the baby’s health,” she added, according to the report.
A staunch Remainer, Tulip lost her seat in Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench after voting against the introduction of Article 50 and she is campaigning for a second referendum. Her constituency voted 76 percent Remain.
The fate of the United Kingdom’s Mar 29 exit from the European Union is deeply uncertain now as parliament is likely to reject May’s deal on Tuesday evening, opening up outcomes ranging from a disorderly divorce to reversing Brexit altogether, according to Reuters.