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It’s not the same for everyone. Me, I have to be there for my kids, I feel it’s important to be there to put them to bed, to pick them up at the nursery, to be there when they wake up. There are some mothers who will do this and, without judging, some mothers who won’t. And that’s OK by me. It’s really a personal decision to make.

Q: You discussed this with the party and they were OK with that?

A: No, not at all. But seeing that we are the Official Opposition with a government that is in majority, there’s not much we can do. So in a way, my absence did not change the results of the votes.

Q: Do you think you’re properly doing your job as an MP if you’re almost never in the Commons to vote?

A: Yes. I wasn’t there for votes but I was quite often in my riding. If I ask my constituents, I am really appreciated in my riding, I do a good job, I am there when one must be, and I ask questions quite often in the House. So my voting absence doesn’t mean I’m not working. There’s a lot you can do otherwise and I do it. It doesn’t reflect a lack of work, it’s most of all a personal decision because I am a mother.

Many who are much more advanced in parliamentary life also really think that we must face the future. I put forward a bill in 2012 concerning, among other things, work-life balance, and the bill fell because the Conservative government wasn’t interested in it.

I think it’s important to allow females – certainly among them mothers who want to spend time with their children – the possibility to either bring them in to their seats, as we see in the European Parliament, or find a way to allow (voting) for people who can’t be there when they have a family responsibility.