If Lyndsay Hoyle really did think he was safeguarding his job as Commons Speaker by allowing Labour’s amendment to the SNP’s ceasefire motion to be debated, he’s thinking twice now.

After he allowed the amendment onto the agenda, in defiance of convention and against the advice of his clerk…

… it was suggested that he had been blackmailed into taking it by Keir Starmer (possibly via his chief of staff, Sue Gray), with a threat that he would not be re-elected as Speaker after the general election if he didn’t toe the line:

Hoyle denied being pressured by anybody from the Labour Party.

Instead, after holding meetings with representatives from all sides of the House of Commons, Hoyle came up with a fantastical story that he had been presented with “frightening” threats to MPs’ safety.

He said he

“never, ever wanted to go through a situation where I pick up a phone to find a friend of whatever side has been murdered by a terrorist”.

He added: “I also don’t want another attack on this House. I was in the chair on that day. I have seen, I have witnessed.

“I won’t share the details but the details of the things that have been brought to me are absolutely frightening on all members of this House, on all sides. I have a duty of care and I say that and if my mistake is looking after members, I am guilty. I am guilty because… I have a duty of care that I will carry out to protect people. It is the protection that led me to make a wrong decision.”

Do you believe that? Tom Smith, who runs Another Angry Voice, doesn’t.

He wrote:

Here’s just some of the stuff that’s wrong with this absurd Starmerite narrative that Hoyle had to bin parliamentary procedure and side with Starmer in order to protect MPs from potential harm.

⚪Labour MPs bragged to their mates in the media that they made Hoyle do what he did by threatening his position as speaker.

⚪Hoyle himself stated that he was doing it for ‘procedural reasons’, rather than for the safety of MPs.

⚪The implication that MPs lives would be in danger were they to have debated a motion that referenced Israeli “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians rather than one that didn’t is downright absurd.

⚪It’s beyond depraved to invoke the horrific killings of MPs by a far-right extremist (Jo Cox) and an Islamist terrorist (David Amess) to portray overwhelmingly peaceful Palestinian solidarity campaigners as a threat to the safety of politicians.

⚪Citing potential terrorist violence in order to rip up established procedures sets an extremely dangerous precedent that clearly incentivises violent threats against MPs from people who expect they can influence political processes through threats and intimidation.

⚪MPs have a long proven track record of fabricating threats and abuse.

⚪MPs centring themselves as the primary victims in all of this is utterly obscene.

I agree with him.

At the time of writing, 67 MPs – mostly from the Conservative Party and the SNP – have signed a motion of ‘no confidence’ in the Speaker.

He should resign; he made a terrible mistake – possibly under pressure from the Labour leadership – and now he has tried to justify himself in a way that is not credible.

And then there is Keir Starmer’s role in this.

If he did pressurise the Speaker – in any way – then he has disgraced his position, the Labour Party, Parliament and the UK (because this was a debate about this country’s role in international affairs).

In such circumstances, he certainly would not deserve to become a prime minister of the UK. Until the questions about this fiasco are answered in full, he should not be allowed the opportunity.

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