South Swindon MP Julia Drown has been pilloried for wanting to take her young son to work with her in London. In early April the Speaker of the House of Commons declared that she could not breast feed him in a committee room because partaking of refreshment was not permitted. Here Julia explains why MPs who become mothers should get a better deal, and why Westminster staff should also have better child care facililities

The Labour Government has launched a number of initiatives to encourage employers to become more family friendly. But the House of Commons itself is sadly lacking in this area.

There are two basic problems. First, the hours of the House of Commons are unnecessarily long and especially unpredictable. We may start at 9.30am one day thinking that we will finish at the usual time of 10.20pm, then find that business has changed and we must be at the House until 1am or even 7am the next morning. That is no way to run the country.

It would be reasonable to work through the night if we were discussing a genuine national emergency. But mostly when the House sits very late it is caused by people playing silly games or repeating at great length points already made in debates. This means that MPs as well as many staff in the House of Commons have to make unnecessary sacrifices in their family lives to do their work.

Secondly, although there are around 10,000 people who work around Westminster there are no childcare facilities in the House of Commons. Many parents would welcome being able to buy a place for their child at a workplace nursery, just as they do in firms up and down Britain.

The House of Commons is still run like a gentlemen's club and it needs to be modernised, so that we encourage more of the very best people in the country, including parents of young children, to come forward and be MPs. This would be good for parents, good for their children and good for the country.