Rayleigh & Wickford MP Mark Francois has defended The Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, after chaos in Parliament at the end of last week’s debate on Gaza.
Speaking out in the Chamber of the Commons, Mark said:
“Collectively, last night was not our finest hour, but Mr Speaker has apologised to the House for his role in what happened, showing evident contrition, and I think we should respect that. If we err in this Chamber, we are expected to apologise to him, and we hope that he will accept our apology in good faith. I think that we should pay him the same courtesy.
Speaking purely personally, I well remember everything that Mr Speaker did to help me, and all of us, when our great friend—my best friend—was murdered by, as it happened, an Islamic extremist, who told his trial that he did it because of how David voted in the House of Commons. Mr Speaker went the extra mile to help us all deal with that tragedy. Look at that plaque behind me.
We should put last night right by rerunning the debate in Government time. Mr Speaker is a decent man, as the Leader of the House said; he is not the villain here. We should rerun the debate, and he should be in his rightful place presiding from the Chair. We are lucky to have him, aren’t we?”
In response, the Leader of the House, Penny Mordaunt MP, said:
“I thank my right hon. Friend for what he has said. I think there is no need for me to add to that; he said it very well.”
