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Hoyle wins: MPs go for safety first option in race to succeed narcissistic Bercow
MPs met to choose a successor to John Bercow today, and fittingly for the 2015-2017 parliament (think of it as the long-winded parliament) the process was laborious. The show dragged on for hour after hour after hour before a winner emerged.
After several rounds of voting it came down to a run off between the favourite Lindsay Hoyle and relative youngster Chris Bryant. In the final round of voting MPs gave it to Hoyle, the down to earth deputy Speaker with a Northern English heritage and a plain-speaking manner. Hoyle won 325 to 213.
It looked to me, from the press gallery, as though Hoyle triumphed because he persuaded an alliance of MPs across the two main parties that he will in unshowy style restore the impartiality of the office after the horrors of the Bercow era.
During his decade in charge the outgoing Speaker not only spoke more than any of his predecessors, in a trademark grating headmaster bullying the weaker boys style. Worse, the last couple of years of his tenure were defined by the controversial decisions he took that facilitated serial attempts to block Brexit. Bercow denies doing this. Tory MPs and those Labour MPs who want the 2016 referendum result honoured emit a hollow laugh on hearing such denials.
There is a tragic side to the Bercow story too. His speakership had two phases, the first positive. When he took on the role in 2009, at the height of the expenses crisis, he stabilised the situation and restored the reputation of the chair when parliament was held in extremely low esteem by voters. It was just as bad as it is now.
This first phase was the era of Bercow the reformer who ensured that the executive could be held to account more effectively than had been the case for some time. Ministers were summoned and reminded of their obligations to Parliament. Backbench MPs were encouraged.
In the second phase, Bercow appeared to drive himself into ever greater paroxysms of excitement at the sound of his own voice. Brexit, and the chance to make himself the story, supercharged his decline.
Anyway, good riddance to bad rubbish.
This election to choose his successor was overseen by the Father of the House, of course. Ken Clarke was made for the moment. Once upon a time Clarke could have become Prime Minister but for his rampant Europhilia that put off many Tory MPs and Conservative party members. Now he has acquired listed status and MPs enjoyed saying farewell today to someone widely regarded as a national treasure.
After the enmity and aggro of the last couple of years, MPs also had rather a jolly time laughing at each other’s jokes in a cross-party manner.
The seven candidates set off, each being given five minutes to make their case.
Dame Rosie Winterton opened but she was immediately eclipsed by her Labour colleague Chris Bryant, who gave the best speech of the day.
Bryant was the slow-burn candidate in this contest, who towards the end in recent days emerged as a figure well-placed to tap into Tory support. Michael Gove was one of his backers.
Bryant spoke clear and true, stressing he would be very different from Bercow. At one point Bryant denounced the way in which clapping has been allowed to take hold in the chamber when MPs are traditionally supposed to wave their order papers.
Ironically, modernising MPs who insist on applauding now find themselves on the wrong side of the “woke” divide. Woke students at some of our leading universities have voted to ban clapping in case it “triggers” or upsets anyone.
Bryant wanted Commons tradition observed. “I want to stop the clapping,” he said. There was a huge cheer and then clapping, drowned by laughter. He would be the servant of the House, Bryant said. “All I seek is the chance to serve.”
Edward Leigh centred his pitch on claiming the Speaker should be a quiet and dignified presence – another dig at Bercow.
Tory Dame Eleanor Laing spoke compellingly of the need for a new Speaker to seek consensus and rebuild trust. Laing told MPs that they are, on the whole, a terrific bunch, something they hear infrequently in the light of recent events and the epic shambles in which they have been embroiled on Brexit.
”The House of Commons is full of good people,” Laing said. “Hear hear,” piped up one MP. “Yeah,” said Laing, to laughter.
It was time for change though, she said, and in the 21st century bullying must be rooted out. Again, who on earth was Laing referring to?
Labour’s Meg Hillier spoke as though addressing a human resources department crisis meeting after an office Christmas party had got out of hand and the police had to be called to stop the senior management assaulting junior members of staff.
There was a deeply serious point, though. There have been repeated allegations of bullying on the Commons estate and even claims that a few MPs have been sexually harassing staff – and each other. This could be “the next expenses scandal,” Hillier said. Some MPs shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Hillier garnered ten votes in the end.
Harriet Harman got nowhere. Her speech was tone deaf and poorly pitched with no effort to woo the Tory MPs she would have needed.
Lindsay Hoyle began the race as the favourite but, as England know to their cost after the weekend’s encounter with South Africa, sometimes the favourite executes the game plan poorly. His speech was too loud – a foghorn came to mind at points. A cheery tribute to John Bercow at the start also felt off.
Incidentally, during the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday Hoyle or his team tweeted out a picture of such strong poignancy that I wonder what message he was trying to send. It showed Hoyle seated looking into the distance across a large drawing room. The rugby was on but he was not looking at the screen. It looked, said more than one wag, like the painting “Whistler’s Mother” reimagined as a Northern English vignette penned by Alan Bennett.
But Hoyle is widely respected in the Commons. He is decent and there was a solidity and residual strength to his candidacy. MPs, many of them looking almost traumatised at this end of this terrible parliament, were seeking reassurance. In choosing Hoyle they went for safety first.
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Iain Martin and the team make sense of the news, providing commentary and analysis on the stories that matter in politics, geopolitics, economics and culture.