Keir Starmer barged into Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s tiny office ahead of Hoyle’s inflammatory announcement of bending Parliament’s rules to help Labour, while Sue Gray lurked nearby and Chris Bryant stalled in the chamber. Andrew Pierce in the Mail has the inside track on how Starmer pulled off his brazen move against the Speaker.
Labour’s Chief Whip Sir Alan Campbell followed Sir Lindsay into the Reasons Room – and hot on the two men’s heels, I have established, was Starmer himself. The Labour leader barged his way in – and the Speaker, I understand, was astonished to see him do so. Normally, party leaders have no business attending private meetings between the Speaker and the whips. So what exactly was Starmer doing there?
And that’s not the only troubling new detail I have uncovered about [Wednesday’s] extraordinary events at Westminster.
Also spotted lurking near the Reasons Room after PMQs was none other than Sue Gray, the ‘neutral’ ex-civil servant who presided over the Partygate inquiry that helped to torpedo Boris Johnson’s premiership in 2022. …
While the private arm-wrestling between the Speaker, the Labour Leader and his Chief Whip took place behind closed doors, back in the Commons chamber, an unrelated Private Member’s Bill about rural transport was rumbling on (raised by Tory ex-Minister Therese Coffey).
Unusually, a frontbencher, Labour’s Sir Chris Bryant, hoisted himself to his feet to respond to Coffey’s fairly arcane speech. Bryant managed to string out his contribution for seven long minutes, even pausing to tell bemused MPs that there were 26 further Private Member’s Bills from MPs called ‘Chris’ in Parliament’s pipeline.
“He was filibustering – time-wasting,” says another Tory MP. “Now we know why. They were stalling to give Starmer more time to mug the Speaker.” …
Just before Bryant sat down, Starmer returned to his frontbench seat in the Commons chamber. Wreathed in smiles, his private meeting with Hoyle had clearly gone well.
Minutes later, the Speaker himself arrived, and then made the bombshell and possibly career-ending announcement that he had turned decades of tradition on its head by allowing a vote on Labour’s motion instead of the SNP’s – a vote which had been crafted to prevent another massive revolt by Starmer’s backbenchers. Sir Lindsay’s deputies had no idea he was going to do this.
Pierce adds that “it’s clear the Speaker was warned by Labour luminaries that he might have ‘blood on his hands’ if he didn’t do as they wish: Islamist extremists had threatened violence against Labour MPs who failed to vote for a ceasefire. In his statement, Hoyle admitted as much, saying he was ‘very, very concerned about the safety of all MPs’.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Ed West has written about Wednesday night’s events for his Wrong Side of History Substack. Well worth a read.
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