Chris

Opposition day is rarely about the opposition motion getting carried. Motions presented by minorities are by their nature unlikely to succeed. But that’s not the point of them. They are there to give voice to smaller parties and allow them to choose their topic, state their case and expose what they see as weaknesses in the positions of the other parties. They can do this effectively whether or not they win a vote at the end of it.

The conventions are there to protect that process as a whole and Lindsay Hoyle’s failure to trust processes that are bigger than him has been his undoing. His protestations of good intent don’t really stack up against his refusal to take advice, his refusal to ensure his clerks closely monitored events and advise the deputy speaker as she presided, and his inexcusable failure to be in the chamber while the whole debacle unfolded.

If this had been a momentary brain fart then there were multiple opportunities during the afternoon to change course but he seems to have decided he was bigger than events and wouldn’t be told. The risk that he will do so again when the chips are down rightly causes some MPs to lose confidence in him.

I think he has to go, and within a week he probably will.