Labour’s Sir Lindsay Hoyle has been elected as the new House of Commons Speaker, as he was dragged by some of his colleagues to the Speaker’s seat, after fending off a challenge from Chris Bryant. He scored over 50 per cent of MP’s votes in the fourth round of voting in the Commons, to emerge Speaker.
This means Sir Lindsay Hoyle will be replacing former Speaker, John Bercow after he stepped down from the chair after 10 years in the role on Thursday.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, 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: “Mr Speaker, in congratulating you on your election I observe that you have prevailed over an extremely strong field and that every other candidate earlier on spoke forcibly and well.”
He added: “Speaking for myself, after long, happy years of dealing with you, I think I know what it is – and let me say, whenever any of us is preparing to speak in this Chamber, we all know there is a moment between standing up and when the Speaker calls you when your heart is in your mouth.
“And in that moment of anxiety, about whether you’re going to make a fool of yourself and so on, and indeed at the moment when we sit down amid deafening silence, the kindliness of the Speaker is absolutely critical to our confidence and the way we behave.
“And Mr Speaker, over the years I have observed that you have many good qualities, and I’m sure you will stick up for backbenchers in the way that you have proposed, and I’m sure that you will adhere to a strict Newtonian concept of time in PMQs.”
After being elected, Sir Lindsay paid tribute to the other candidates in the race for Speaker.
He added: “I stand by what I said, I stand firm, that I hope this House will be once a great respected House, not just in here but across the world.
“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.”
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 also vowed to push on with security reforms to keep MPs and the Commons safe.