The speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has issued an unprecedented apology after a chaotic parliamentary debate on the 21^st of February.  

A House of Commons vote on the Israel-Hamas war descended into chaos as Conservative and Scottish National party MPs walked out of the chamber in protest at the speaker’s handling of the debate. 

The SNP are the third largest party within the House of Commons, meaning that they are entitled to three opposition days in parliament every session, allowing them to choose a topic to be debated on the floor of the chamber. On this day, it was the Israel-Hamas war that the SNP chose to debate, laying down a motion that called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Middle East.  

At the start of a debate on a motion, it is the Speaker’s decision whether any amendments to it can be voted on or debated. However, parliamentary convention says that if the motion has been put forward by an opposition party (like the SNP), it cannot be amended by another opposition party (like Labour), only the government.  

Sir Lindsay made the decision that both the governments and Labour’s amendments to the SNP’s motion would be voted on, claiming that he wanted to give the House as many options as possible when debating such an emotive topic. 

Shortly after the decision was made, Tory MPs accused Sir Lindsay of making an “overtly political decision”, which was to help Sir Keir Starmer fight off a rebellion from his own MPs. In addition to this, Penny Mordaunt, the Tory leader of the House, announced that her party “will play no further part in proceedings” in protest at the actions of Sir Lindsay. 

With the Tory amendment gone, and the Conservatives abstaining from voting – Labour’s amendment passed through government without a vote, which meant that the SNP motion had been changed into Labour’s words, and the Scottish MPs were not able to vote on their own proposal.  

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett explained that “The Labour amendment went through because no Conservatives took part in the vote. The SNP motion, which began the whole story, was not voted on at all; the SNP and Conservatives are furious,” he said. “Keir Starmer and his Labour Party have kind of gotten out of a sticky mess, but it leaves parliament looking extremely compromised. What was a serious debate about this crucial issue about civilian life in Gaza has ended in this procedural nightmare.” 

Both Conservative and SNP MPs staged a walkout over the result of what had occurred, demanding Sir Lindsay to explain his actions.  

“I thought I was doing the right thing and the best thing, and I regret it, and I apologise for how it’s ended up, I do take responsibility for my actions”, he said. 

Labour MP Barry Sheerman has spoken about his anger and disappointment at the behaviour of his colleagues; “It is a f***ing disgrace. We are now in a row with ourselves, among ourselves, debating whether to kick out the speaker of the House of Commons, rather than the issue at hand, which could not be more serious. It is the most depressing day of my life as an MP.” 

As well as Sheerman, many other MPs and ambassadors have spoken out about how they feel with regard to the situation; “It’s disgraceful, it’s very disgraceful. Today we have seen British politics at its worst. Politicians are trying to save themselves, rather than saving an entire nation,” the Palestinian Ambassador to Britain, Hasam Zumlot, told LBC radio. 

Although more than 70 MPs have signed a motion expressing no confidence in the speaker, it seems that for now, their efforts to oust him have stalled. Plenty of rightwing Tories have swung behind him, including the veteran Sir Edward Leigh, who said it was time to move on and have another debate as soon as possible on a government motion, with all amendments considered “to restore our reputation as soon as possible”. 

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