A pregnant UK lawmaker said she’s postponing her Cesarean section against her doctor’s advice in order to cast her ballot on Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
Tulip Siddiq, 36, who was scheduled to give birth to her baby boy on Tuesday, postponed her C-section by two days so she could vote against the deal Wednesday, CNN reported. Doctors advised Siddiq to give birth on Monday or Tuesday after she developed gestational diabetes.
Siddiq is a Labour member of the UK’s House of Commons. Her husband, Christian Percy, will push her in a wheelchair in the Parliament building so that she can cast her vote, Siddiq’s office told USA Today.
Even though sick or pregnant members of Parliament can be paired with an opposition party member who agrees not to vote to balance the tally, Siddiq says she doesn’t trust the system after last summer, when politician Julian Smith voted “by accident” while Jo Swinson was on maternity leave.
“Thank you all for supportive messages. My decision to delay my baby’s birth is not one I take lightly. Let me be clear, I have no faith in the pairing system — in July the Govt stole the vote of a new mother. It’s my duty to represent Hampstead & Kilburn, and I will do just that,” Siddiq tweeted on Tuesday.
“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,” Siddiq told the Evening Standard. This will be Siddiq’s second child.
The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, said he thought Siddiq should be allowed to have a proxy vote.
“I believe that it is absolutely essential, not just in terms of the rights of the honorable member [Tulip Siddiq], but for the reputation of this House as an institution approaching, or starting to take an interest in, the modern world, that she should be facilitated to tomorrow to vote,” Bercow said Monday.
No proxy vote had been extended, Siddiq’s office told CNN.
Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on March 29. May said that if her Brexit deal does not win approval, it would lead to “paralysis in Parliament that risks there being no Brexit.”
