A Labour MP who is eight months pregnant and suffering serious back pain has spoken out after being forced into parliament to take part in a vote on Brexit.

Laura Pidcock was among a number of seriously ill and heavily pregnant MPs – including Labour's Naz Shah, who came straight from hospital – who struggled into the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Labour sources said the Conservative government had refused to honour a longstanding convention that allows sick MPs to be "nodded through" rather than requiring them to physically walk through the lobbies.

Tory whips had been worried they did not have the numbers to defeat an attempt by pro-Remain rebels to give parliament a say on what happens if there is no deal between the UK and EU.

In the end, Tory rebel Dominic Grieve's amendment was defeated by 319 votes to 303 after he and others were satisfied by an apparent government compromise.

Pidcock, MP for North West Durham, told BuzzFeed News: "Getting around parliament is hard enough when eight months pregnant, but the fact that in this 'cradle of democracy', the needs of pregnant women don’t even seem to be considered adds insult to injury.

"Of course, I know that what happens in parliament is a just a small reflection of a wider discrimination against pregnant women in workplaces up and down the country, where employers routinely flout equality, maternity, and paternity legislation – and that there are women in much more difficult circumstances.

"This week, though, with my due date a matter of a few weeks away, and in extreme discomfort – the baby is lying on my sciatic nerve – I have had to struggle in to parliament, aided by a wheelchair at times, only to be checked out by government whips to make sure that I’m not faking it."