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Essex MP: Breastfeeding in Commons 'would open us up to ridicule'

Simon Burns is the MP for Chelmsford. Credit: ITV Anglia.

Allowing female MPs to breastfeed in the House of Commons would risk ridicule from the press, an Essex MP has said.

Conservative Sir Simon Burns, urged "caution" over the potential move to make the Commons more family friendly, during a Westminster debate on the subject.

The former health minister added that he agreed with the former Speaker Baroness Boothroyd, who said she would allow breastfeeding in the Commons when supermarket checkout staff were able to do the same.

There is an appropriate time and place in which breastfeeding should take place and I'm just giving a word of caution that one does not want this issue to degenerate into an opportunity where the merits of the case are undermined because we are ridiculed by what is being proposed.

– Sir Simon Burns