SNP and Conservative MPs are angry with the speaker after how the Gaza ceasefire vote was handled

Last night, the House of Commons descended into chaos over an opposition day debate in which MPs were asked to vote on whether to support a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Commons was initially set to vote on a motion proposed by the SNP which called for a ceasefire. However, that motion was ultimately not put to MPs after the speaker Lindsay Hoyle allowed an amendment from the Labour Party.

The initial SNP motion called for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza, the release of hostages held by Hamas, and accused Israel of engaging in collective punishment of the Palestinian people. The Labour amendment also called for a ceasefire, but said that “Israel cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence and that Israelis have the right to assurance that the horror of 7 October 2023 cannot happen again.”

A substantial number of Labour MPs were expected to back the SNP motion of the Labour amendment wasn’t selected, and Labour’s amendment being selected meant that Keir Starmer avoided a major rebellion.

The speaker’s decision turned out to be highly controversial. Parliamentary convention is that on opposition day debates only government amendments are selected to be voted on. Both Tory and SNP MPs refused to take part in the vote on the motion, meaning it passed without a division in the Commons.

It later emerged that Starmer met with the speaker to lobby him to allow the Labour amendment to be put to a vote. Hoyle said that he allowed the Labour amendment as a result of threats to the personal safety of MPs.

However, Newsnight‘s political editor Nicholas Watt has said that sources in the Labour Party told him that Labour figures indicated to Hoyle that they would remove him as speaker after the next election if he did not call Labour’s amendment. The speaker’s office has denied this.

Hoyle later issued an apology in the House of Commons. He told MPs: “It is clear that today did not show the house at its best. I will reflect on my part in that of course”, later adding: “I have tried to do what I thought was the right thing for all sides of this House. It is regrettable, and I apologise, that the decision didn’t end up in the place that I wished.”

Following the drama in the Commons, an Early Day Motion has been submitted which expresses no confidence in the speaker. At the time of writing, 81 MPs have signed the motion.

The full list of MPs who have signed the motion is as follows:

1. William Wragg, Conservative
2. Gary Sambrook, Conservative
3. Jill Mortimer, Conservative
4. John Stevenson, Conservative
5. Kieran Mullan, Conservative
6. Anthony Mangnall, Conservative
7. James Durridge, Conservative
8. Jo Gideon, Conservative
9. Chris Green, Conservative
10. Bob Blackman, Conservative
11. Tom Randall, Conservative
12. Jonathan Lord, Conservative
13. Karl McCartney, Conservative
14. Derek Thomas, Conservative
15. Jack Brereton, Conservative
16. Tom Hunt, Conservative
17. David Linden, SNP
18. Stewart McDonald, SNP
19. Chris Law, SNP
20. John McNally, SNP
21. Gavin Newlands, SNP
22. Pete Wishart, SNP
23. James Grundy, Conservative
24. Martyn Day, SNP
25. Joanna Cherry, SNP
26. Patricia Gibson, SNP
27. Brendan Clarke-Smith, Conservative
28. Lee Anderson, Conservative
29. Alison Thewliss, SNP
30. Anum Qaisar, SNP
31. Graham Brady, Conservative
32. Eddie Hughes, Conservative
33. Geoffrey Clifton Brown, Conservative
34. Douglas Chapman, SNP
35. Carol Monaghan, SNP
36. Marco Longhi, Conservative
37. Drew Hendry, SNP
38. Rob Roberts, Independent
39. Anne McLaughlin, SNP
40. John Nicolson, SNP
41. Simon Baynes, Conservative
42. Shaun Bailey, Conservative
43. Matt Warman, Conservative
44. Alyn Smith, SNP
45. Kirsty Blackman, SNP
46. Ronnie Cowan, SNP
47. Steve Double, Conservative
48. Danny Kruger, Conservative
49. Miriam Cates, Conservative
50. Dave Doogan, SNP
51. Amy Callaghan, SNP
52. Robert Goodwill, Conservative
53. Lia Nici, Conservative
54. Brendan O’Hara, SNP
55. Jonathan Gullis, Conservative
56. Kelly Tolhurst, Conservative
57. Alan Brown, SNP
58. Luke Evans, Conservative
59. Jane Hunt, Conservative
60. Stephen Flynn, SNP
61. Ian Levy, Conservative
62. Mhairi Black, SNP
63. Richard Thomson, SNP
64. Kirsten Oswald, SNP
65. Allan Dorans, SNP
66. Paul Howell, Conservative
67. Andrew Lewer, Conservative
68. Mark Eastwood, Conservative
69. Marion Fellows, SNP
70. Hannah Bardell, SNP
71. Ben Spencer, Conservative
72. Steven Bonnar, SNP
73. Vicky Ford, Conservative
74. Rachel Maclean, Conservative
75. Philipps Whitford, SNP
76. Stewart Hosie, SNP
77. Sally-Ann Hart, Conservative
78. Stuart C McDonald, SNP
79. Chris Stephens, SNP
80. Martin Docherty-Hughes, SNP
81. Adam Afriyie, Conservative

Note: This article initially reported 33 MPs as having signed the motion, it was updated at 9:10 on 27/2/2024 to reflect the new signatories.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: Diliff – Creative Commons

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