A MUM was evicted from Grays Job Centre for breastfeeding her daughter.

Rachel Bridson, 25, said she was feeding 13-week-old Amber in a corner of the centre when she was asked by a security guard to leave.

Mrs Bridson, of Avontar Road, South Ockendon, said: “I was sitting downstairs because I have got a little baby and she was moaning and hungry, so I covered up with a blanket and started feeding her.

“A security guard came over and said, ‘it’s against our policy, you can’t do that in here’.

“I said under the law you could breastfeed anywhere – and she was covered up and you couldn’t see anything.”

Mrs Bridson said the security guard informed a female member of staff, who also told her to go. Mrs Bridson said she was “fuming”.

The incident was not the first at the centre, Mrs Bridson said, explaining that she had been “told off” before by Grays Job Centre staff for feeding her then 12-month-old son.

Attending a back-to-work session with her husband two years ago, Mrs Bridson said she was surprised to be told, “Your son is too old to be breastfed now. You are not allowed to feed at that age”.

The Job Centre manager called to apologise for the latest incident, but Mrs Bridson said: “I just can’t believe it.

“I was so angry and felt so discriminated against – like they were against mothers, against breastfeeding.

“I knew the law and I knew I was 100 per cent right.

“The new manager did call me up to say she was so sorry and that the member of staff was facing disciplinary action.

“I just think it’s shocking. It’s natural and the Government wants us to do it. Not enough mums do.”

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “We have apologised to Mrs Bridson.

“Job Centre policy is very clear and this incident shouldn’t have happened.

“Job Centre Plus allows women customers who are in Job Centres or attending other DWP premises to breastfeed in public, if they want to.

“We have an obligation to ensure that a woman who is breastfeeding is not treated unfairly.”

The DWP declined to confirm if the female member of staff was facing disciplinary action, and said the security guard involved was from another company.