Tory chief whip accused of 'lying' to Tory MP after she was allegedly told to vote during her maternity leave

The Chief Whip has been accused of "lying" to one of his own MPs after she was allegedly told to vote repeatedly during her maternity leave.

Julian Smith allegedly told Andrea Jenkyns that she had to vote in the wake of the snap election in June last year because Labour was refusing to "pair" with her.

Under the parliamentary convention pairs of MPs on different sides of the house agree not to vote so an absence for illness, travel or maternity leave does not affect the result.

Because she wasn't paired Ms Jenkyns returned to London from her Yorkshire constituency repeatedly to vote during her maternity leave.

She voted more than a dozen times, putting her son in the Commons nursery from the age of 12 weeks while she was in Parliament or even bringing him into the chamber.

Labour subsequently said the MP's name was not put forward for pairing by Tory whips, prompting a furious response from Ms Jenkyns.

A Eurosceptic Tory MP and friend of Ms Jenkyns said: "She feels like she was lied to, she's absolutely furious. She was left feeling like they cared more about votes than people."

However sources close to the whips office insisted that at the time Labour was refusing to offer any pairs because it wanted to "bring down the Government" in the wake of the snap election.

It comes after the Chief Whip faced calls to resign after it emerged he urged Tory MPs to break with "pairing arrangements" to avert a damaging Brexit defeat.

Brandon Lewis, the Chairman of the Conservative Party, voted on a key vote on the customs union on Tuesday after being told to break his pair by Mr Smith.

It breached a deal with Jo Swinson, a Liberal Democrat MP who is on maternity leave, who accused him of "cheating". Mr Lewis has apologised to Ms Swinson and insisted it was an "honest mistake" by whips.

The Prime Minister also claimed on Wednesday that the pairing breach was an "honest mistake". Mr Smith is now facing criticism over his alleged treatment of Ms Jenkyns when he was serving as Chief Whip after the snap election.

She gave an interview in January to the Yorkshire Evening Post in which she disclosed she had been told to vote because Labour were being "very awkward".

She said she was "frustrated" that while she was not paired, Labour MPs with babies such as Luciana Berger.

She said: "Labour were being very awkward because we had a minority government. What happens is, when you’re on maternity leave they’ll pair you with either someone who’s off sick or someone else who’s on maternity leave so the votes stack up.

“But Labour refused to pair me up because they wanted the Conservatives to lose each vote so I couldn’t have any maternity leave. So I never actually re-started my maternity leave until the very end of September.

“It’s frustrating in a way because Emma and Luciana, who I get on very well with, they’re young mums and they’re able to get on with things but I couldn’t really. So that was quite challenging.” However Labour denied that it had refused pairing arrangements.

A spokesman said: “It is categorically untrue that Labour whips have refused to pair any MP on maternity leave - and unlike the Tories we honour our commitments.”