UK Speaker and US Ambassador make security pledge during Commons meeting

Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Her Excellency Jane Hartley stressed the importance of sharing information to protect the Commons and Capitol Hill, after both came under attack.

The Speaker said "mob rule" in Washington DC last year had been a warning to Parliaments across the globe of the dangers of anti-democratic forces.

In March 2017, a terrorist attack on Westminster Bridge resulted in the deaths of five people, including parliamentary police officer, PC Keith Palmer, who was killed trying to protect Parliament.

The issue of security was raised during Sir Lindsay’s second meeting with the ambassador – a day after the ambassador formally presented her credentials to HM The Queen.

The pair first met in June, during an early Independence Day celebration at US ambassador’s official residence in London.

Mr Speaker said he hoped Her Excellency would follow in the footsteps of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, who visited his Chorley constituency last year for the G7 Speakers’ conference.

Ambassador Hartley was fascinated to learn that Myles Standish - hired by the Pilgrims to be their Captain on the Mayflower voyage to the US more than 400 years ago - was from Chorley.

During the G7, the special relationship between the UK and the US was strengthened further when the US Speaker presented Sir Lindsay with ‘the Stars and Stripes’ to complement a flag handed over by American troops during the Second World War.