- The House of Commons is selecting a new Speaker after John Bercow departed at the end of last week
- Labour’s Sir Lindsay Hoyle has emerged victorious in the crucial contest ahead of a further Brexit battle
- But former minister Chris Bryant had put in a strong challenge to provide an alternative choice for MPs
- Six other candidates were eliminated including Harriet Harman, Dame Eleanor Laing and Meg Hillier
- Outcome was very difficult to predict as multiple secret ballots of ‘duplicitous’ MPs who alter their votes
Labour’s Sir Lindsay Hoyle was dramatically installed as the new Commons Speaker tonight after fending off a challenge from Chris Bryant during hours of behind-the-scenes wrangling.
The firm favourite finally emerged victorious in the fourth gruelling round of voting by MPs, after five other candidates fell by the wayside in the contest to replace John Bercow.
Sir Lindsay, who has been Deputy Speaker for the past nine years, secured the promotion after receiving backing from 325 MPs to Mr Bryant’s 213.
In keeping with tradition, he was dragged to the chair – a vestige of the days when it was a highly dangerous position and incumbents lost their lives to wrathful monarchs.
Sir Lindsay promised to restore the ‘tarnished’ reputation of Parliament – and also paid an emotional tribute to his daughter Natalie, who died tragically aged just 28 two years ago. ‘I wish you had been here,’ he said. ‘She was everything to all of us.’
The new Speaker said: ‘I hope this House will be once a great respected House, not just in here but across the world.’
He added: ‘It’s the envy, and we’ve got to make sure that tarnish is polished away, that the respect and tolerance that we expect from everyone who works in here will be shown and we’ll keep that in order.’
Boris Johnson welcomed the appointment, saying he looked forward to having Commons business ‘invigilated by an impartial Speaker’. Sir Lindsay will now resign from the Labour Party and represent his Chorley seat as an independent.
Earlier, Tory Dame Eleanor Laing became the fifth to have her hopes dashed, with her 127 votes put up for grabs. Although the ballot is conducted in secret and the cross-party dynamics are complex, the bulk of her support was always expected go to Sir Lindsay, who has fostered good relations with Conservative Eurosceptics.
He burnished his credentials as a clean break from the Bercow era last week, when he shunned amendments tabled by Remainers designed to wreck Boris Johnson’s bid to force a snap election. Sir Lindsay has never declared whether he backed Leave or Remain in the referendum, but his constituency voted in favour of Brexit.
The dramatic developments came after the candidates used their opening pitches to swipe at ‘grandstanding’ Mr Bercow.
In a series of speeches ahead of the crunch votes, Sir Lindsay said the inhabitant of the chair should be ‘accountable’.
Meanwhile, Dame Eleanor took a potshot at Mr Bercow’s verbose style. ‘Can I just say that it’s not the role of the Speaker to say any more than needs to be said,’ she insisted.
Fellow Labour MP Chris Bryant said he wanted to ‘return to the rulebook’, in an apparent dig at the former Speaker’s creative interpretations of procedure in Brexit debates.
The winner inherits the highest-paid job in British politics at more than £150,000 a year, plus the right to live in the opulent Speaker’s House residence.
Mr Bercow demonstrated quite how powerful the role can be during his controversial decade in the chair, dividing opinion with his reforming agenda, abrasive personal style, and much-criticised use of expenses.
Lindsay Hoyle was clearly delighted to have won the Speakership tonight. But in keeping with tradition he was ‘dragged’ to the chair in the Commons by colleagues
The chamber was crowded as Sir Lindsay thanked supporters and staff after hours of behind-the-scenes wrangling
Fellow Labour MPs Chris Bryant, a former Foreign Office minister put in strong challenge for the top job in the Commons, but was eventually defeated
Former Cabinet minister Ken Clarke, the longest-serving MP, officiated the process to select a new Speaker today.
While Sir Lindsay always looked the front runner, even his allies admitted the outcome was incredibly difficult to predict, with multiple rounds of secret ballots and an electorate described as the ‘most duplicitous in the world’.
Before the process began one MP joked that around 1,100 pledges of support had been offered to candidates by the 650 members of the Commons.
Sir Lindsay was dragged to the chair by Tory MP Nigel Evans and Labour’s Caroline Flint.
In moving scenes, he paid tribute to his daughter Natalie Lewis-Hoyle, who was found unconscious at her home in Essex in December 2017.
An inquest last year heard she was found hanged by her mother, Maldon councillor Miriam Lewis, but there was not enough evidence to conclude she had intended to take her own life.
‘She will always be missed but she will always be in out thoughts,’ Sir Lindsay said.
Offering his congratulations, Mr Johnson said: ‘I believe you will also bring your signature kindness, kindness and reasonableness to our proceedings, and thereby to help to bring us together as a Parliament and a democracy.
‘Because no matter how fiercely we may disagree, we know that every member comes to this place with the best of motives, determined to solve, to serve the oldest Parliamentary democracy in the world.
‘And to achieve our goals by the peaceable arts of reason and debate invigilated by an impartial Speaker, which was and remains one of our greatest gifts to the world.’
Under the rules, MPs can only vote for one candidate in each round, but who they back is private.
Any candidate who receives more than 50 per cent of the votes cast is proposed to the House as Speaker, but politicians are asked to vote again if no candidate meets the threshold.
Hopefuls who come last or receives fewer than 5 per cent of the votes are automatically eliminated.
There is also a 10-minute period after each round for candidates to withdraw voluntarily.
Sir Lindsay was way out in front after the initial skirmishes in the House, with 211 votes in the first round. His closest rival was Tory Dame Eleanor, who had 113.
Mr Bryant, 57, received 98 in the first round, but eventually came through to take it to a head-to-head.
They received 267 and 169 votes in the third round respectively, with Dame Eleanor bowing out on 127, leaving Sir Lindsay within sight of victory.
He needs just 15 of Dame Eleanor’s backers to switch their allegiance to him to win.
Harriet Harman, who was fourth after the second round had earlier withdrawn.
The other would-be Speakers eliminated were Labours’ Dame Rosie Winterton and Meg Hillier, plus Conservative Sir Edward Leigh.
In his speech, Sir Lindsay said: ‘It’s about having an accountable Speaker to back that up. It isn’t just about the backbenches, it’s about a Speaker that endorses and supports the backbenches – and that’s what I hope I’ve always shown during my nine years as deputy.’
Sir Lindsay also said the Commons is ‘not a club’ where length of service takes priority, adding: ‘The person who walked through that door yesterday is just as important to their constituents – their voice must be heard as well – and the pecking order ought not to be there, it is about equality.’
He pledged to push on with security reforms to keep MPs, their families, staff and the Commons safe.
He went on: ‘This chamber I believe is under-used and we ought to seriously look at how much more we can get out of this chamber.’
Laying out his platform, Mr Bryant said: ‘I’m standing because I love Parliament, I believe in parliamentary democracy and I want to do things properly – that means being a Speaker who has absolutely no favourites, a Speaker who believes in standing by the rules, somebody who is completely impartial, who knows Erskine May inside out, back to front, I’ve got it lying by my bedside.’
Mr Bryant added: ‘A Speaker who is an umpire not a player.’
The MP said he wants Prime Minister’s Questions to return to 30 minutes – rather than the hour it had hit under Mr Bercow – call MPs relevant to a debate rather than because of some idea of seniority, and to stop clapping in the chamber.
Dame Eleanor Laing, also a Deputy Speaker, was in second place after the first round of votes this afternoon – but was knocked out after the third round
Veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman, the longest-serving female MP, was looking to become only the second woman Speaker in history – but admitted defeat
Sir Edward Leigh (left) and Meg Hillier (right) were knocked out in the first round of voting this afternoon
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in the House of Commons this afternoon to cast his vote for the next Speaker
Deputy Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle (pictured today) was always the hot favourite to emerge victorious in the race for the Speakership. But even Sir Lindsay’s allies admitted the outcome was incredibly difficult to predict.
Dame Eleanor said she wanted to end the ‘culture of bullying’ at Westminster, adding: ‘There are times for continuity and there are times for change. This is the time for change. I want to be that change.
‘This the 21st century for goodness sake, we need to escape from the overbearing and hierarchal structures that have made it all too easy for a culture of bullying to take route.’
In another barb at Mr Bercow she said: ‘Can I just say that it’s not the role of the Speaker to say any more than needs to be said.’
Mr Bercow departed the Speaker’s chair on October 31.
The 56-year-old entered Parliament in 1997 and held several shadow ministerial positions before taking the Speaker’s chair on June 22 2009, promising to serve ‘no more than nine years in total’.
He abandoned that commitment ahead of the 2017 snap election, but allegations of bullying by former members of his staff, denied by the Speaker, led to fresh calls for him to quit.
He caused fury by twisting rules in the chamber to help Remainer MPs take on the government’s Brexit policy.
Mr Bercow formalised his departure from the Commons today by becoming ‘Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead’.
That is the traditional way of standing down as an MP, as they are not allowed to resign from office directly.
Mr Clarke shared a joke with MPs as he took charge of the process with his usual lighthearted touch
Mr Bercow (pictured) departed the Speaker’s chair on October 31 after a controversial decade
source:dailymail