AN SNP MP has been cautioned after taking her two young children into a Westminster committee meeting.
Kirsty Blackman was censured by Parliament staff after she was forced to take her four-year-old son Harris and two-year-old daughter Rebecca to a discussion on English Votes for English Laws (EVEL) after being unable to find childcare in London.
As Scottish schools and nurseries closed for summer at the end of June, weeks before the parliamentary recess, the Aberdeen North representative had no choice but to take her children into parliament on Monday and Tuesday of last week.
The pair sat in an office while their mother voted against the renewal of Trident, then made history as the first children to sit in on a select committee meeting on Tuesday.
After that meeting, which saw toddler Rebecca sat on Kirsty's lap, the married 30-year-old received a caution from clerks for breaching rules.
Speaking to Scotland on Sunday, Mrs Blackman said: “What am I supposed to do with a two year-old? Where am I supposed to leave them? How am I supposed to say to a two-year-old, you need to stay with two people that you don’t know while mummy goes and votes?”
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Her censure comes as a report on Westminster’s approach to equalities made 41 recommendations, warning that “considerably more needs to be done” on childcare provision.
Video footage of the meeting shows Mrs Blackman leaving her seat several times before bringing her daughter to sit on her lap.
Rebecca's contribution to the EVEL discussions consisted of her drawing on a sheet of paper.
Mrs Blackman and SNP colleague Alison Thewliss had to break with convention again in the past week, bringing children through the voting lobbies.
Children over a year old are not permitted in the lobbies, while rules were only changed to allow babies to be brought through the lobbies during the last parliament, when Lib Dem MPs Jo Swinson and Duncan Hames had no choice but to carry their son with them to a vote.
A spokeswoman for the Speaker’s office said a group chaired by Mr Bercow would consider the report.
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