Lindsay Hoyle: the Commons speaker facing scrutiny

House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle is clinging to his job after more than 70 MPs backed an early-day motion calling for him to resign. 

Hoyle apologised last week after he broke decades of parliamentary convention to allow a vote on a Labour amendment to an SNP motion calling for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Israel-Hamas war. 

After chaotic scenes in Parliament, which Rishi Sunak described as "very concerning", 71 MPs have signed a motion of no confidence against Hoyle.

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Hoyle was "braced for a second perilous week" in the House of Commons, with the SNP demanding a new vote on Israel's offensive in Gaza, said the Financial Times (FT). The SNP is calling on Hoyle to allow MPs to vote on a fresh motion which, if passed, would ask the government to take "specific, practical, concrete steps to help make an immediate ceasefire happen" in Gaza.

The speaker will be feeling under "intense pressure" as he faces calls to go from disgruntled SNP and Conservative backbenchers, said Politico. But bending parliamentary rules for a second time is therefore "unlikely to impress Hoyle's remaining allies on the Tory and Labour benches".

Who is Lindsay Hoyle?

Hoyle, the son of a Labour MP, was "born to the green benches", said The Times at the time of his election to the speaker's chair in 2019. His father, Doug Hoyle – now Lord Hoyle – stepped down in 1997 as the MP for Warrington North to become a peer as his son was elected in Chorley.

One "Westminster savant" described Hoyle Junior as "a kind of embodiment of the British constitution", said the BBC's parliamentary correspondent, Mark D'Arcy. At the time of his election, Hoyle was viewed as "the sort of politician who has been marinated in parliamentary practice so long they have an instinctive feel for its unwritten rules and unspoken conventions".

Hoyle vowed in 2019 that he would not permit the sort of "Commons chicanery" that many felt had been allowed under his controversial predecessor John Bercow, said Politico. Bercow famously allowed an emergency motion to ensure the government could not take the UK out of the EU without a deal.

Hoyle told the BBC's "Political Thinking" podcast that a tidying up of parliamentary rules was needed to provide clarity so that "nobody could accuse the speaker" of anything. "I've come into this job as a referee, and that's where I want to be. It shouldn't be about me, it's about the chamber," he told Nick Robinson.

Yet Hoyle's decision last week was reminiscent of Bercow's tenure, said Thomas Fleming of UCL's Constitution Unit, speaking to the FT. The former speaker, who stepped down four years ago over bullying allegations, had regularly been criticised for interpreting rules and parliamentary traditions in "unconventional ways".

Why is Hoyle facing so much scrutiny?

Hoyle's decision to allow a vote on the Labour amendment last week led to chaotic scenes in Parliament and criticism from Sunak as dozens of parliamentarians walked out in protest. Many viewed the move as a gift to Labour leader Keir Starmer, who had been facing rebellion from his MPs over the SNP motion.

Hoyle later apologised and said he had made the decision due to fears for MPs' safety if they could not publicly declare their position on the Israel-Hamas war.

In an attempt to calm the storm created by the departure from parliamentary precedent, Hoyle has offered the SNP an emergency debate under Standing Order 24 – a rarely used mechanism that allows a motion to be debated on "neutral terms", with no final vote to determine the government's position. But the SNP had requested that standing order be "substantive" and lead to a vote.

Hoyle has been warned by senior Conservative MPs that granting the SNP such a vote would be seen as "another significant departure from protocol", said The Sunday Times, and only "add to the tensions" seen in the Commons last week.

It leaves Hoyle in a bind, said The Times. He owes his position "in large measure to Tory MPs who appreciated his promise to end Bercow-style constitutional chicanery", yet the SNP's desire to oust him is "likely to intensify" if he refuses the party a meaningful vote.

There is no formal means of removing the speaker from their role. But a no-confidence vote, or even the threat of one, would put Hoyle in an extremely difficult position.