Commons speaker rejects SNP request for emergency debate on Gaza ceasefire
The Guardian|February 27, 2024
The Commons speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has rejected an SNP request for a further Gaza ceasefire vote after last week's angry scenes at Westminster amid concerns that it could be a further breach of protocol.
Pinna Crerar
Commons speaker rejects SNP request for emergency debate on Gaza ceasefire

The SNP had asked for a vote on a "substantive" motion on whether there should be an immediate ceasefire after the speaker said last week that he would be willing to consider an emergency debate.

However, the Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell is understood to be making a Commons statement on the Gaza conflict today that, under parliamentary protocol, would be prioritised over the SNP request.

Hoyle's decision brought a number of new signatures to a motion expressing no confidence in the speaker, with 80 MPs now backing the call for him to step down, and accusations that he had "broken his word" over promises of another debate on Gaza.

SNP insiders had argued that there was a precedent for an emergency debate to conclude with a vote on a substantive motion, which would give MPs the chance to explicitly call on the government to actively pursue an end to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The former speaker John Bercow allowed more than a dozen such debates during the passage of Brexit through parliament, although the move prompted fury among some Tory MPs who argued that it was a breach of protocol.

This story is from the February 27, 2024 edition of The Guardian.

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This story is from the February 27, 2024 edition of The Guardian.

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