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Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is battling for his political survival today after a bruising evening yesterday. As of this morning, 33 Tory and SNP MPs have signed an early day motion calling for him to go.
The motion, tabled by Conservative MP William Wragg, declares no confidence in the Commons Speaker.
In 2009, then Commons speaker Michael Martin announced he would resign just two days after a motion on the House of Commons order paper called on him to do so, with just 23 MPs’ support.
Early Day Motions are submitted for debate in the House of Commons and can be used to demonstrate the level of support in Parliament for an issue.
Hoyle sparked the fury of Tory and SNP MPs yesterday after he broke Commons precedent by selecting a Labour amendment
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Hoyle sparked the fury of Tory and SNP MPs yesterday after he broke precedent by selecting a Labour amendment, along with a Government amendment, to an Opposition Day motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Protocol dictates that the Commons Speaker would only select one of the amendments, and it is highly unusual for an opposition amendment to be selected.
He apologised to the House of Commons last night following a walkout by SNP and Tory MPs. Hoyle said it was never his “intent” for the Gaza debate to have descended into such mayhem.
He said: “Clearly today has not shown the House at it’s best. I’ll reflect on my part. I do not want it to have ended like this. I’ll meet with all the key players of each party.”
He added that he wanted to offer MPs “the widest range of propositions on which to express a view”.
But Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, did not seem to accept the apology, saying: “I will take significant convincing that your position is not now intolerable.”
He later added: “Every single member of Parliament knows that Lindsay Hoyle was meeting with Sir Keir Starmer and Alan Campbell, the Labour Chief Whip, before a decision was taken today.
“Indeed it was suggested to me that was a reason the Speaker was jumping in and out of the Speaker’s chair in advance of proceedings, which will obviously all be on camera for everyone to reflect upon.”
Last night, it emerged that Hoyle’s decision was taken against the advice of the Clerk of the House.
Writing to Hoyle, Clerk of the House Tom Goldsmith warned that “long standing conventions are not being followed in this case”.
However, he acknowledged that Hoyle’s decision was “motivated by giving the House what you considered to be the widest choice of decisions on alternative propositions, on a subject of immense importance, on which people outside of the House have the strongest of views”.
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Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, did not seem to accept Hoyle’s apology, saying: “I will take significant convincing that your position is not now intolerable.”
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Hoyle has been accused of bowing to pressure from Starmer to select the Labour amendment, an accusation both Labour and the Speaker have denied. If the Labour amendment hadn’t been selected, his MPs would have had to choose between voting for a Government amendment – which stops short of demanding a ceasefire – or rebelling to vote for the SNP motion.
The last time a vote took place on this issue, 10 members of his Shadow Cabinet were forced to quit.
The 10 Labour frontbenchers quit after they broke with the party line to vote for the SNP’s amendment to the King’s Speech calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Gaza.
In an attempt to prevent dozens of his own MPs from rebelling to vote with the SNP on the motion, Starmer tabled an amendment which takes a similar position.
The SNP’s amendment calls for an “immediate ceasefire” and condemns the “collective punishment” of Palestinians, while Labour’s amendment says Israel’s planned assault on Rafah “must not take place”.
It also demands an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” that must be observed by “all sides.”
Labour’s amendment was passed by the Commons last night after the Government whipped its MPs to abstain.
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