Labour’s Chris Bryant has said what MPs really need is a big hug as he made his pitch to replace John Bercow as Commons speaker.
The Rhondda MP said he wanted to “tend to the wounds” inflicted on Parliament by Brexit chaos, and bring people back together.
“This is a community of people,” he said. “There’s a Welsh word, cwtch, which means hug. I just feel a bit as if – this is going to sound terrible pious – I just feel like it all needs a bit of a cwtch at the moment.”
Mr Bryant recently underwent surgery to remove a cancerous growth from the back of his head, but says he remains as “chipper” as ever.
Speaker Bercow had been expected to announce his plan to step down from the job after ten years when Parliament returns after the Easter break.
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But there were reports over the weekend that he has changed his mind, and now intends to stay in the Speaker’s chair until Brexit is resolved.
A spokesman said on Sunday: “The Speaker was elected by the House in 2017 for the course of the Parliament.
“In the event he has anything to say on his future plans, he will make an announcement to the House first.”
Mr Bryant is the first Labour MP to publicly declare his bid to replace Speaker Bercow.
In an interview with Parliament's The House magazine, he said he would do “everything in my power” not to “belittle, diminish or lecture MPs” if he got the job, saying MPs are “battered and bruised enough.”
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He said: “I remember very early on being an MP, sitting in the Chamber, Michael Martin was the Speaker, and he was giving a woman MP a dressing down. I think it was for reading a question, which used to be really thought badly of.
“I wanted the ground to swallow me up, because I thought, god, I wouldn’t want to be that poor MP.
“The things you might say to another person, at a dinner party or in the bar or in casual conversation in the team room, when they’re said from the chair to an MP, it’s just devastating.
“It’s like the headteacher telling you off in front of the whole class and it’s broadcast to the nation and your family is sitting there as well.”
