High hopes for Hoyle
The appointment of the new Speaker “is proof that politics in Britain right now really is topsy-turvy”, said Paul Waugh on Huffington Post. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, a privately educated knight of the realm and the son of an MP, may sound like an “archetypal Tory” – but he is in fact the Labour MP for Chorley in Lancashire, and has been since 1997. Yet “in a neat inversion of John Bercow’s election ten years ago, when Labour votes ensured an Opposition backbencher got the job”, it was Tory votes that secured the role for Hoyle; he beat Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for Rhondda, by 325-213 in the final vote, having seen off five other candidates, including Harriet Harman and Eleanor Laing. Hoyle triumphed mainly because MPs have seen him in action as Deputy Speaker since 2010, and most of them feel that he treats them “fairly”.
The new Speaker promises to be “honourable, competent and self-effacing”, said Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph. What a contrast with his predecessor Bercow, whose tenure was an “epic of vanity and exhibitionism”. Yes, Bercow made some worthwhile changes, such as allowing more so-called urgent questions to hold the Government to account. But his “preening pomposity” soiled the dignity of his office and, crucially, he wasn’t impartial. Bercow was an “unashamed activist”, said the Daily Mail. He made no secret of his “contempt for Brexit”. In the Opposition amendments that he allowed, and the Government ones he rejected, he “ripped up the rulebook” to thwart the result of the 2016 referendum. “Mr Bercow’s record was not unblemished,” said The Independent. He was accused of bullying his staff (which he denied), and he was at times “insufferably pompous”. But the central charge – that he was biased against Brexit – is unfair. “He was biased, always and everywhere, in favour of the Commons.” When, for instance, he allowed the Benn Act to outlaw a no-deal Brexit, he was giving expression to the clear will of the House. During his time in the chair, Bercow had to deal with four PMs, two hung Parliaments, the aftermath of the MPs’ expenses scandal and, most of all, the constitutional crises of Brexit. He managed admirably, shoring up the power of the legislative and leaving a “reinvigorated Commons”. Hoyle has “a tough act to follow”.
Bercow was “undoubtedly a historic figure”, but his era is over, said Therese Raphael on Bloomberg. It was noticeable that nearly all of the seven MPs vying to replace him offered “thinly veiled attacks” on his “methods and manner”. Hoyle will hew closer to pre-Bercow convention in his interpretation of the parliamentary rulebook. He will be more scrupulously impartial; he is one of the few MPs not to have revealed how he voted in the referendum. And he is unlikely to become an “international celebrity”, to the relief of many in the House. “The Speaker isn’t meant to grab your attention, let alone monopolise it. If you don’t hear much about Lindsay Hoyle, he’s probably doing his job well.”