Sir Lindsay Hoyle: Time as Commons speaker has been unbelievable

2 years ago 17

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Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said his time as the House of Commons speaker has been "quite unbelievable" as he celebrated the third anniversary of being elected.

The Chorley MP has seen a general election, three prime ministers, the Covid-19 pandemic, Queen Elizabeth II's death, the end of Brexit and much more since becoming speaker in 2019.

He said "nobody could have predicted" what he has presided over.

"I just want to know what normality is," he told BBC Radio Lancashire.

Sir Lindsay, who was elected as a Lancashire councillor in 1980 before becoming the Labour MP for Chorley in 1997, was elected as the 158th speaker after the previous incumbent John Bercow stepped down from the role.

He said he was proud of many of the things he had been involved in over the three years, but considered one of his biggest achievements was ensuring government business could continue during the Covid lockdowns.

He said the pandemic had been "impossible to believe, because we underestimated just what it was like at the beginning".

"You heard about something happening in China, before we knew it, it had engulfed the world," he said.

"It was about how can we deal with this, how can we protect people, how can we keep Parliament going?"

"Parliament's there to scrutinise the business of government and making sure that MPs can scrutinise it properly and vote on it [and] we were in danger of losing democracy.

"That was the one thing I wasn't going to accept, so [we had] remote voting, remote Parliament, we made it work."

'A smiling face'

Sir Lindsay also played a major role in the ceremonies that followed the death of Queen Elizabeth II, addressing King Charles III in Westminster Hall on behalf of MPs.

He said while he "obviously would have preferred for Her Majesty to still be with us", to be at the "centre of that was very important".

"I was meeting President Biden and then the King of Spain. There were all these different dignitaries going through," he said.

"And then going out into the queue [of people waiting to file past the Queen's coffin] and meeting people from all over the world.

"The least I could do was put a smiling face on and welcome them into Parliament."

Image source, PA Media

Image caption,

King Charles III presented Sir Lindsay with a copy of his address at Westminster Hall following the death of the Queen

He said that while his duties as speaker were important, he placed equal value on his role of representing Chorley and was often to be found "dashing" between London and the North West.

He added that he was also always open to new ideas, but would draw the line at following Conservative MP Matt Hancock into the jungle on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.

He said Mr Hancock, who has been suspended by his party over joining the show, will "have to answer to his constituents" about whether his decision to go while Parliament is sitting was right, but he believed that "as an MP, I certainly wouldn't be going to Australia".

And he added that he also would not be interested in undertaking any Bushtucker Trials.

"I'm definitely not ready to try kangaroo's testicles," he said.

"I'd sooner stick with a bit of Lancashire black pudding."

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