Hoyle Fights To Save Job As Starmer Denies Threat Claim

Sixty-seven MPs sign no-confidence motion in speaker

- KATE DEVLIN, ARCHIE MITCHELL

Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to deny he threatened the Commons speaker after a vote on a ceasefire in Gaza descended into chaos.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle is scrabbling to save his job after he was accused of “hijacking” a debate on the war and ripping up parliamentary procedure to favour Labour. Sixty-seven MPs have signed a motion demanding his head, while Rishi Sunak described his actions as “very concerning”.

In an extraordinary move, Sir Keir was forced to deny using threats to ensure Labour got its way. Ultimately, he sidestepped a potentially damaging rebellion over his party’s stance on the conflict.

Sir Keir said: “I can categorically [say] that I did not threaten the speaker in any way whatsoever. I simply urged to ensure that we have the broadest possible debate so that actually the most important thing – which is what do we do about the situation in Gaza – could be properly discussed by MPs with a number of options in front of them.”

But the leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt accused the Labour leader of being “weak and fickle” and damaging the office of the speaker. She told MPs: “I would never have done to [Lindsay Hoyle] what the Labour Party have done to him.” Sir Keir was “happy to do what he knows to be wrong”, she added.

But her party piled the pressure on the speaker, as Downing Street repeatedly refused to say whether Rishi Sunak had confidence in him. Later the prime minister went further, warning parliament should never bow to “extremists” as he hit out at Sir Lindsay.

The speaker cited fears for the safety of MPs as he, as the prime minister put it, changed the “usual ways in which parliament works”.