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I had two weeks away from Westminster. It looked horrifying

The Times

My baby boy was born about two weeks ago. As for any family it was an amazing experience for ours, welcoming this little guy into the world, and I took some paternity leave for about ten days while voting in parliament by proxy – the first father to do so in parliamentary history.

However, what was politically relevant was the sense of perspective it gave me about our travails. No, I didn’t have any Damascene conversions. I supported the PM’s withdrawal agreement before paternity leave, and I still do.

Before I went away, inside the Westminster house of horrors things felt pretty bad. MPs (including myself of course) were not as courteous as normal, irritable, tired, incapable of even bothering to talk about anything other