After winning the final round of voting against Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and Deputy Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has been elected by Members of Parliament as the new House of Commons Speaker.
The 158th Speaker of the House of Commons was elected on the 4th of November 2019, in an election where he received 325 votes in the final ballot, out of a total of 540 votes cast.
Why Did Parliament Vote a New Speaker?
The election was triggered on the 9th of September 2019 after former speaker, John Bercow, announced he will be resigning as Speaker and a Member of Parliament by the end of October, except parliament was dissolved before then or a general election was called.
On the 29th of October, the House of Commons voted for a snap election to hold on the 12th of December this year.
How Speakers Are Elected
To be eligible for the position of Speaker, candidates need the support of up to 12 MPs and at least three must belong to a different party from the candidate. MPs have 20 minutes to vote in a secret ballot, while it will take about 45 minutes to count them. After each round, there is a 10-minute period for candidates to withdraw their candidacy, after which MPs will continue to vote till one candidate obtains more than half of the votes.
The process is being overseen by Ken Clarke who, as “Father of the House,” is the longest-serving MP in the House of Commons.
Meet the Candidates
Seven candidates ran the for the position and they are:
Sir Lindsay Hoyle: Labour MP and Deputy Speaker who received more than 50% of votes.
Chris Bryant: Former minister and shadow Commons leader who, in his mini-campaign, pledged to stop clapping during parliament sessions.
Harriet Harman- Former minister and Deputy Labour leader who withdrew her candidacy to support Hoyle.
Meg Hillier- Chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee and former minister.
Dame Eleanor Laing- Labour MP and former Deputy Speaker.
Sir Edward Leigh- Conservative MP and former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
Dame Rosie Winterton- Labour MP and former Labour chief whip, who left the contest in the second round of voting.
On Dissolving Parliament
With parliament due to dissolve on November 6, two days after the election of a new Speaker, the question of whether he will be contesting in the elections or not lingers. In British politics, the Speaker is no longer an MP once Parliament is dissolved and, like every other MP, the Speaker must stand for re-election as ‘Speaker seeking re-election.’
If Hoyle’s is to recontest, his chances of returning after the elections remain solid seeing he has support from a majority in the house.
Speakers are required to remain unbiased, this means Sir Lindsay will have to resign from the Labour Party to carry out his new role.
