Speaker News: Lookback at the week commencing 8 July 2024
15 July 2024
Election of the Speaker
This week on Tuesday 8 July, Sir Lindsay Hoyle was re-elected as Speaker of the House of Commons for a second term. The House assembled in the Chamber of the House of Commons at 2.30pm ready for Father of the House, Sir Edward Leigh to chair proceedings.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker seeking re-election, was given the opportunity to address the House from the benches, submitting himself to the House as their Speaker and seeking to be their ‘champion’.
It was then the turn of the MP for Lancaster and Wyre, Cat Smith to move the motion that Sir Lindsay Hoyle do take the Chair as Speaker of the House – delivering a speech with much humour, grace and integrity to express why she believes Sir Lindsay should take to the Chair.
A convincing ‘aye’ was called out in the Chamber, and it was the job of MPs Sir David Davis and Cat Smith to continue the long-standing tradition of ‘dragging’ the newly elected Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle to the Chair. Learn more about this tradition of dragging the Speaker here.
On taking the Chair, the Speaker-elect, Sir Lindsay Hoyle expressed his thanks, stating what an honour it is to serve the House once again. He invited the Father of the House (Sir Edward Leigh), Mother of the House (Diane Abbott), Prime Minister (Sir Keir Starmer) and fellow party leaders to address the House on his re-election.
Following a short suspension of the sitting, the House resumed with the Speaker elect being summoned by Black Rod to the House of Lords for Royal Approbation.
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Swearing in of Members
From the afternoon of Tuesday 9 July to Thursday 11 July, the Speaker welcomed over 600 MPs to the House of Commons Chamber to be sworn in, pledging their allegiance to the Crown.
Before taking their seat in Parliament, Members must be sworn in order to represent their constituency in the Chamber during debates. Learn more about swearing in here.
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New Members in Speaker’s House
On Wednesday 10 July, the Speaker invited new Members to Speaker’s House for an opportunity to welcome them to the House Commons and facilitate the chance for new Members to network with colleagues.
Work in the study
Throughout the week the Speaker hosted a range of meetings with Members and colleagues from teams across House, as well as reviewing office correspondence and completing House administration tasks.
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