Labour's rising star Tulip Siddiq on why maternity leave shouldn't be a ‘problem’ in politics

Tulip Siddiq is among a growing number of MPs who will take maternity leave. She tells Rosamund Urwin about the politics of babies and basements
Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Kilburn, Tulip Siddiq
Daniel Hambury
Rosamund Urwin18 January 2016

A young man offered Tulip Siddiq a seat on the Tube last week. The MP for Hampstead and Kilburn is nearly seven months pregnant with her first child (a girl) and says Londoners — contrary to stereotype — have never forced her to stand. But after the recent furore, this chap couldn’t resist a quip: “If you’re hungry too, let me know.”

He was referring to an incident in the Commons when deputy speaker Eleanor Laing lambasted Siddiq for leaving the chamber to get a snack. Siddiq, who had been there for two-and-a-half hours, had broken the convention that you don’t exit straight after speaking. She apologised. But Laing told her not to “play the pregnancy card”, accusing Siddiq of “bringing down the whole of womankind”. “I didn’t mention being pregnant,” Siddiq tells me. “It had nothing to do with it. I was just hungry.”

She feels there’s an irony in what they were debating at the time. “It was about universal credit, which will affect women — especially single mothers — the worst. The Tories voted for it [yet] I was told that by a Conservative.”

Laing’s comments have provoked outrage. “I’ve had more messages on this than anything else. There’s a sense of outrage on my behalf... It expose a culture we need to get rid of in politics.”

Siddiq stresses that she doesn’t want to tar all Tory MPs with the same brush, though. Many have told her they were appalled by the comments. Tracey Crouch — who’s also pregnant — gave Siddiq a charity wristband that monitors the baby’s kicks. And former Communities Secretary Eric Pickles asked Siddiq if she would name her daughter Erica and make him godfather. She also singles out the Speaker, John Bercow, for praise. “He’s a real feminist. It might have been different had he been in the chair.” After Bercow found out Siddiq was pregnant, he said she no longer needed to bob up and down when asking to speak; she could just wave her order paper.

The 33-year-old — a rising star in the Labour Party — won her seat last May but has the confidence of someone who’s been in politics far longer. She seems to know everyone at JW3, the Jewish community centre in her constituency where we’ve met for mezze and mushroom burgers.

Siddiq has no desire to inflame the Laing situation but hopes it could lead to a broader discussion of the archaic attitudes and practices in Parliament. I ask if she thinks some older women take the view that they had it hard, so why should they remove hurdles for the next generation? She nods. “That’s very much Thatcher’s legacy. She acted like a man and surrounded herself with men. It’s changing but elements of Parliament still reek of Thatcher. There’s no need for: ‘I only sleep four hours a night’. You can be human and female and still rise to the top.”

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Laing herself reportedly went back to work 10 days after giving birth. “I’m not planning to do that. My maternity leave will absolutely depend on how my body feels. I might be fine the next day, or I won’t be able to get up. I don’t want to take lots of time off, though, as I’m a public servant.”

Taking maternity leave in Parliament is tricky. “HR said to me ‘there’s no standardised maternity leave’... and that they haven’t had to deal with this ‘problem’ very often. Parliament has never had as many women of child-bearing age as it does now. That’s why it needs to change.”

Siddiq has some other suggestions to make Parliament more family-friendly: longer paternity leave, for recess to coincide with half-term and for the possibility of proxy-voting to be explored, so that MPs won’t have to be in the chamber. A quick fix to stop MPs having to wait three hours would be to publish a list of who speaks when, as the Lords does. “It makes planning your life much easier.”

Ending the late-nights culture would help too. “One of the saddest things I see — when we’re walking in to vote — is parents pulling out their iPads to say goodnight to their children on Facetime.” A fortnight ago, a debate went on until 2am. “I don’t want sympathy but if we’re the heart of democracy shouldn’t we be setting an example?”

Siddiq’s husband, Chris Percy, will be going part-time to help look after their daughter. She’s surprised that some people have called that “weird”. “People our age say that. Men shouldn’t have to hide the fact that they want to enjoy seeing their child grow up.”

As someone who likes to be prepared for everything (“I hate surprises. I’m not waiting nine months to find out what sex the baby growing inside me is”), Siddiq knows she’s venturing into the unknown with pregnancy. “People keep asking me what kind of mother I think I’ll be. I don’t know because you can’t learn parenting. That’s one of the things that scares me.”

It probably doesn’t help that friends have been regaling her with birth nightmares. “Someone described it as the closest thing to becoming an animal.” Her eyes widen in horror.

More positively, pregnancy has also reminded her why she went into politics. “The value of our public services has never been as prominent for me.” Her midwife, Kate, has become “basically my best friend”, replying to any worried texts (Siddiq recently panicked after eating a salt beef bagel) at all hours, while she “can’t praise enough” the Royal Free Hospital, especially after she had a Down’s scare. That inspired her to lobby for a non-invasive blood test to be available to mothers on the NHS, which is now set to happen.

As we’re discussing this our waiter comes to take our order, and Siddiq reveals that she’s allergic to honey. “It’s a violent reaction. I was at a briefing by [Labour mayoral candidate] Sadiq Khan on terrorism and Islamophobia. Halfway through I realised that I’d eaten honey and I was going to throw up.”

Though she’s understandably dismissive of the polls (which place Khan ahead), she says there’s a buzz around his bid for City Hall. Siddiq recently visited the campaign office: “The energy in the room was very Obama-esque.”

She has first-hand experience of the loyalty Khan can inspire. On her wedding day, Siddiq’s hairdresser found out she was a politician and asked if she knew Khan, who was actually attending the ceremony. “All of a sudden hot chocolate appeared,” she recalls. In Khan’s days as a lawyer he had fought a case for this man, who told Siddiq that the salon was only his because Khan won the case. “His entire livelihood depended on Sadiq. He went all out on my hair afterwards.”

Siddiq criticises Zac Goldsmith's campaign for an absence of ideas
Philip Toscano/PA

She criticises the Goldsmith campaign for an absence of ideas. “Yes, he’s good-looking and has lots of money. Great. What are you actually going to do for us? What does Zac stand for? I’m an MP in the same Parliament as him but I never hear him really voice an opinion.”

A Muslim herself, she feels that it “reeks of opportunism” that Goldsmith branded Khan “radical”. “The connotations were obvious. You’re speaking to someone who used to do polling for a living. They’ll have done focus groups [testing that word].”

She says the main issue for the election will be housing. Given Siddiq’s constituency, a chunk of her casework involves rather more luxurious work in that sphere than other London MPs: fights over über-basements. “People will instruct for the work and then they’ll go away for six months to their other home, and the people around them suffer the noise of drilling and danger from the building site.”

She is supporting Karen Buck’s Private Members’ Bill to control basement building: “I don’t see the need for them unless they don’t affect anyone else around you.” She feels too often the community gets over-ruled: “Sometimes the council will ignore the representations from constituents because there’ll be some law that allows a private developer to do it. We need to give the community more power over what happens in their neighbourhood.”

We turn to the dreaded subject of the current split in the Labour Party but Siddiq answers everything like a pro. She’s angry about the attempt to intimidate Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy into opposing intervention in Syria — “We’re not held to ransom by people who think they can bully us into voting one way or another” — but she has no fears about deselection herself. The local Momentum movement has been supportive and invited her to meetings.

And how is Corbyn faring as leader? “I think Jeremy has the hardest job in the world. He does need to explain some of the decisions he’s made, and some of the people he’s shared panels with in the past, but I believe in democracy and he has a huge mandate.”

She voted for Andy Burnham but did help Corbyn get on the ballot. “I never thought Jeremy would win.” Her perma-smile becomes slightly strained. “But I nominated him because my constituency nominated him, and I owe everything to them. And to broaden the debate. Which it did.”

It did mean Labour picked three men for the top roles. “Yeah, and I regret that. It wasn’t pleasant when the announcements of the leadership came and not a single woman spoke. Sitting in the audience, I felt like we’d taken a step backwards. We need to change things at the top.” Could that include her one day? She laughs. “I can’t imagine anything worse than being leader of the Labour Party.”

Follow Rosamund on Twitter: @RosamundUrwin

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