Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is ‘terrific, tough, loved by everybody’: Chorley councillor defends town’s MP

Lindsay Hoyle has had one of his toughest weeks yet as Speaker of the House of Commons, sparking the fury of Scottish National Party and Conservative MPs by letting Labour amend the SNP’s Israel and Gaza ceasefire motion last night.

More than 60  Conservative and SNP MPs have now signed a no-confidence motion in Hoyle, and Tory peer Stewart Jackson even suggested the Tories or other parties may end up breaching convention by fielding a candidate against Hoyle in his Chorley seat at the general election.

But Hoyle should not be too worried about that potential contest at least, according to Chorley council executive member Alistair Morwood, also previously treasurer of Hoyle’s local Constituency Labour Party.

‘He’s loved by everybody’

Morwood told LabourList there will “always be” other parties running against the Speaker, but “they’ve no chance of winning – Lindsay will win.”

At the 2019 election, Hoyle won 67.3% of the vote, against 23.7% for an independent and 8.1% for a Green, with the Lib Dems and Tories not standing.

“He’s terrific and up here very regularly; he wanders around market on a Saturday and shakes people’s hands. He’s a very amiable guy; very human,” added Morwood.

“As an MP – he’s absolutely loved by everybody in the constituency, from all sides.  Even Conservatives say he’s terrific. I’m pretty sure the constituents of Chorley would back him.”

He said “occasionally” he has heard some constituents object to the way Hoyle’s Speaker duties affect his role – the Speaker has to sever ties with their party to be a non-partisan figure overseeing proceedings, and does not vote. But it is “very rare”, and Morwood said he has not heard discontent in Chorley CLP, either.

‘Hoyle was doing what he thought was right, but he’ll reflect and it’ll have hurt him’

As for how Hoyle has handled that independence, now under scrutiny, Morwood said Hoyle was “doing what he thought was right”.

“It went against convention, but sometimes you have to do that, and obviously he thought yesterday it was holding back what might have been achieved.” The SNP walkout was “a little bit over the top”.

He said he has seen Hoyle, since his election as Speaker in 2019, be “very careful to separate” his role from his party background, and works well locally with the local council and opposition, Morwood said.

“At heart he’s still got socialist feelings, but he’s been in politics a long time and knew what the role was – he wouldn’t act deliberately to favour one side against the other.”

But Hoyle will “reflect” on what’s happened. “He’s a tough politician. But it will have hurt him – the guy is human.”

Meanwhile BBC Lancashire journalist Alice Sofield reported that the “general consensus” among Chorley residents she spoke to was that “they don’t want to see him resign or get forced out.”

“People really do like their local MP, and feel like he’s done the town proud.”