Veteran British lawmaker, Lindsay Hoyle has emerged new speaker of Parliament after MPs selected him to replace John Bercow.
Hoyle, a Labour MP for 22 years and Bercow’s deputy since 2010, beat out six other contenders in a protracted day of voting in the House of Commons, winning the support of 325 of 540 members of parliament in a fourth and final round of votes.
Bercow stepped down last Thursday having enraged the ruling Conservatives with a series of decisions they suspected aimed at thwarting Brexit.
“It’s about the challenges ahead for me and this chamber,” Hoyle told MPs after being dragged to the speaker’s elevated green chair, in keeping with parliamentary tradition.
“We’ve got to make sure that tarnish is polished away,” he added, in reference to recent rancour in the House of Commons largely over Brexit.
Welcoming Hoyle’s victory, Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed him as having many good qualities.
Johnson added Hoyle would bring his “signature kindness and reasonableness to our proceedings.”
However, Hoyle will not have too long to get comfortable as parliament will be dissolved late Tuesday for the December 12 election, after which he will return to sit in the speaker’s green chair.
The new speaker will now give up his party affiliation while rival parties are traditionally not expected to field a candidate to contest his seat in elections.
