When dining out is awkward

Press, 19 December 1989, Page 8

When dining out is awkward

NZPA-PA London A Labour member of Parliament did not know where to look when a colleague, Harriet Harman, decided it was time to feed her baby — and pulled up her jumper on a crowded train. Mrs Harman, the Shadow Health Minister, voted Britain’s sexiest M.P. in a survey last year, explained: “I said to one of my senior colleagues, whom I chan’t name, ‘Do you mind if I feed the baby?’ and he said: ‘No, that’s fine.’

“I don’t know if he was expecting me to get out a sandwich or something. Anyway we were all packed in like sardines and I started to pull up my jersey and he said, ‘What, here!’ “I asked him where he expected me to feed him. I couldn’t stand in the corridor and I wouldn't feed Joe in the 100. “Now this is a man who’s got four children, but I really laughed because he didn’t know where to look.”

Mrs Harman, the 38-year-old M.P. for Peckham, south-east London, told “Living” magazine she sometimes went to Parliament for a rest from the demands of parenthood. She has three children. “Before I had children I had no idea how overwhelmingly smitten I would be by motherhood, though I didn’t realise how challenging, how difficult, it is. “That’s why I think that women at home bringing up their children are doing one of the most difficult jobs in the world.

“I have to be honest... there are times when I like to be here at Westminster just to relax and do something easy for a change!” She blushed at her “sexy” tag, saying: “I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was flattering.”