Voting by proxy in parliament has been in debate after pregnant MP Tulip Siddiq delayed her labour so she could vote on the Prime Minister’s Brexit Deal.

The UK does not have a policy to allow an MP to nominate someone to vote by proxy for them. Allowing someone to vote on the behalf of an MP expecting a child near the time of a vote may allow safer births.

After being told by her doctors to plan her caesarean labour earlier due to her developing Gestational diabetes, she decided to postpone her birth two days later.

Many members of the public questioned the safety of her having to choose between voting and having a safe birth. Dr Julian Spinks, GP for Court View Surgery in Strood said: “One to two days of delay is unlikely to cause health problems, often deliveries that involve Gestational diabetes are slightly early as the mother is at risk of producing larger babies.”

Although her delayed labour is unlikely to cause any health problems for her or the baby, Dr Spinks believes voting by proxy would be more sensible than voting by pairing as pregnancy is a genuine medical need.

She defends her choice by stating her vote affects the future of the world her child will live in when he is born. She said: “I am thinking about my child’s future when I made this decision – his future in the world.”

Ms. Siddiq said she didn’t trust the system of parliament’s pairing voting after Lib Dem Jo Swinson, was accused of breaching the system whilst on maternity leave.

Praise has been given to Ms. Siddiq for raising awareness on by proxy voting in parliament. In a tweet she said, “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.”

The government has been met with backlash on twitter for still not having a by proxy voting system. Georgia Hicks‏tweeted: “A mother having to delay the birth of her child because there’s no proxy system in place yet people will still argue that sexism isn’t a thing and there is true gender equality.”

After being debated twice in parliament a voting by Proxy system is still yet to be agreed to.

Labour MP Harriet Harman, an advocate for Ms. Siddiq, took to twitter about the issue and said: “@TulipSiddiq shouldn’t have 2 choose between postponing Caesarean & voting in wheelchair 9 months pregnant, or losing her crucial #BrexitVote.”

However tory MP, Kemi Badenoch believes Ms. Siddiq is only postponing her labour  to make a point that she is doing this for her constituency as a way to prove her loyalty to the remain campaign. She said that if “hundreds and hundreds” of people will vote against her then “her one vote wouldn’t make a difference.”

Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow backs the idea of a proxy vote. He said: “It is extremely regrettable that almost a year after the first debate and over four months after the second debate this change has not been made.”

Ms. Siddiq’s decisions have sparked new conversations in parliament on actually creating a by proxy voting system.