I’ve known since I was fairly young that I wanted to be involved in the world of politics in some form or another. I’ve also known since I was very young that I wanted children. Little did I know then about how conflicting those two ambitions were, and how important flexible working was going to become in my families’ life.
I joined the Labour Party as a teenager because I had seen the value of public services first-hand. I campaigned for years on the doorstep before standing for election as a local councillor in Camden. I was in my early twenties when I became a councillor at the same time as working in a high-pressure private sector job - not to mention managing a hectic social life and endless hours on the doorstep campaigning.
This lifestyle continued throughout my twenties and often, on a Sunday night, exhausted by my busy lifestyle, I would muse in the shower that I could never ever do this if I had children. I barely had time to look after myself, let alone look after a little human being.
Eventually at 30, after a string of kissing some, frankly speaking, dreadful frogs, I met my future husband Chris. I knew quite early on in the relationship that this was the one, and I was excited about how he would fit in to my future. I also knew that I wanted to stand for MP in the area where I grew up, and that the MP at the time – the fantastic Glenda Jackson - was retiring at the next election.
At the time, Chris was working at a Senior Consultant at a competitive strategy firm. For six months, he was sent to Scunthorpe where he worked Monday to Thursday and came back to London on the weekends. Often he would be sent away to a different country with 24 hours’ notice. When he was in London, he worked past midnight most nights.
As our relationship progressed I decided to bite the bullet and have the conversation. Chris knew I wanted to be an MP and he knew what the working hours of an MP were. We vote at 10pm on a Monday, 7pm on a Tuesday and 7pm on a Wednesday in a good week. If there’s emergency legislation or a crisis in the country, there have been times when I’ve voted at 3am - like during the dreadful Brexit legislation.
Chris and I had always talked about wanting children, so I asked him whether he would be prepared to change his career to be able to stay at home for our children. He said yes. It was a life changing experience for him as he became a freelancer overnight - and a decision that was met with incredulity from friends and family.
Four out of five workers want to work flexibly, but, like in our case, those opportunities do not exist for far too many families.
But the truth is that there’s no way the company he worked for would have allowed him flexible working hours. And there’s no way that the parliamentary whips would have let me off from voting late at night simply because I had a small child. When I had my first child in 2016, there was no such thing as proxy voting or virtual participation in the Chamber.
Four out of five workers want to work flexibly, but, like in our case, those opportunities do not exist for far too many families. Three in ten requests for flexible working are rejected by employers. Working from home has increased dramatically during the pandemic, but all other forms of flexibility including part-time and flexi-time working have declined.
This week I’m presenting a Flexible Working Bill in Parliament to change this by giving all workers a right to flexible working and making sure jobs are advertised as flexible.
My hope is that millions of women out there won’t have to ask their partner to make such a life changing decision or even quit work themselves, and that carers and disabled workers will have an easier life.
Research shows that productivity and wellbeing at work increases when employees are allowed to work flexibly, so this change is a win-win for workers and businesses.
I hope the Government recognise this and support my Flexible Working Bill.