Labour MPs seek childcare expenses

In among around 2,500 responses posted by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority this weekend, the Parliamentary Labour Party Women's Committee called for more childcare support.

Consideration should be given to the high costs of childcare incurred by MPs because of the long and often unpredictable hours associated with the job.

"This is not strictly comparable to women who undertake shift work," read the committee's response. "Indeed we can see no parallel with the job of MPs in this respect as hours are long every day including weekends and MPs can be delayed by constituency or parliamentary events running late meaning extension to child care requirements at short notice."

The committee claimed that the flexible childcare required by women MPs "has to be paid for", and proposed a childcare voucher scheme for MPs.

The response went on to calculate the annual costs of children for MPs at around £18,000. This included £12,000 for childcare services and £1,000 in "accounting fees" and £1,000 on "cleaning".

Alison Garnham, chief executive of childcare charity Daycare Trust, supported the committee's claims. "Women MPs are outnumbered by men and if we are serious about tackling this, we need to acknowledge the need to help with childcare," she said.

"Since so many women entered Parliament from 1997 onwards, we have seen a vast increase in family friendly policies yet it is ironic that many female parliamentarians who led the way in bringing these changes about still do not have their childcare needs met in their own place of work."