The Sun has apologised to Manchester MP Lucy Powell after it included her on a ‘top 10 lazy MPs list’ – despite her being on maternity leave.
The 39-year-old Labour MP for Manchester Central was featured in the list which was compiled “in terms of turning up to vote in the Commons”.
Powell said she only realised she was on the list when she “started to get texts and Twitter messages”.
She said she had continued to work while pregnant but did not go to London to vote.
“On further investigation I realised they had based their analysis on my voting record,” she said.
“Of course, I’ve had a few months off from Parliament this year because I’ve been on maternity leave and I’ve had a baby.
“While I was having a baby I was still doing all of my constituency case work and lots of other aspects of my job, I just wasn’t going down to London to actually vote because I had been paired.”
The newspaper said the online version of the story had been removed and the article was “under review”. It posted this tweet yesterday:
Our apologies to @LucyMPowell for including her on list of the 10 laziest MPs while on maternity leave. Story taken down + under review.
— Sun Politics (@Sun_Politics) December 14, 2013
The MP has now called for “a full apology in print in the newspaper”.
