View from Westminster
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Thursday, February 22, 2024 |
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Speaker's blunder over Gaza vote |
The most important mistake made by Sir Lindsay Hoyle last night has been a bit overlooked. He could have taken a lot of heat out of the debate if he had reversed the order of the votes, so that the Commons voted on the Scottish National Party motion first and then on the Labour amendment. He was in trouble in the first place because he had changed the usual procedure; all he had to do was to change it again after the Conservatives withdrew their amendment and decided not to take part in the votes. That was what wiped out the SNP motion, and made Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader in Westminster, so furious. But, as I have written today, Sir Lindsay could have saved himself an awful lot of trouble if he had been agile enough to switch again. He should have listened to Karen Bradley, the Tory chair of the procedure committee, who suggested it. No wonder her name is being bandied about as a possible successor to Sir Lindsay as speaker. |
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What is the most populous island in the world? |
Answer at the bottom of today's email |
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| Sixty MPs sign no-confidence motion in Hoyle as he says he acted over 'frightening' threats to MPs |
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| Claims arise from prosecutions of subpostmasters before the Horizon scandal |
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| Foreign secretary confronts Sergei Lavrov at the G20 summit in Brazil |
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What else you need to know today |
- Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, updated the Commons on the war in Ukraine, saying Russian forces had suffered 356,000 casualties
- Liz Truss is about to deliver a speech in Washington, expanding on her theory that her premiership was destroyed by the "deep state"
- David Gauke, the former Tory cabinet minister, urged Liberal Democrats to become the "natural political home for the liberal centre right" rather than to "continue as the country's second-favourite party of the centre left"
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Does Britain still possess a credible nuclear deterrent? |
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One of the UK's proud arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles fell harmlessly into the Atlantic during testing was a further embarrassment to the Ministry of Defence... Read more |
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A look back at the week in Westminster |
A nightmare week for Sir Lindsay Hoyle |
It is private members' bills day in the Commons on Friday. If the Scottish National Party takes up the speaker's offer of an emergency debate to compensate it for the derailing of its Gaza ceasefire vote, that will presumably happen next week. This week started with a combative performance by Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, escalating her war against Henry Staunton, the Post Office chair whom she sacked. But the rest of the week was dominated by the SNP's debate on Gaza and Sir Lindsay Hoyle's mishandling of it. Interestingly, this involved two striking turns at the despatch box by Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, which will have impressed Tory MPs and party members. It is almost as if Badenoch and Mordaunt are the frontrunners in the next Conservative leadership contest. |
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"If you're a government minister like me, you've got to respect the ref – even if you disagree with his decisions." |
Michael Gove, levelling-up secretary |
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And finally... Court clerk: Are you here about your hearing?
Me: No my hearing's fine, I think it's that murder I did Jon @ArfMeasures |
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