LINDSAY Hoyle has been urged to release his secret correspondence with Israeli politicians – after the Speaker blocked its release.
The Commons Speaker prevented his emails to Israeli politicians and other figures from being made public after a Freedom of Information request from Declassified.
The investigative outlet had requested copies of all written correspondence since October 1, 2023 between him and the Israeli Embassy, Labour Friends of Israel and members or officials of the Knesset.
In response, the Commons said that the Speaker had blocked its release because he had “formed the reasonable opinion that disclosure of the information would be likely to prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs”.
It came after Hoyle flew to Israel in November 2023, after the country had already been accused of committing war crimes in Gaza, on a “solidarity trip”.
Now, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie (below) has said that the Speaker’s dealings with foreign states such as Israel “must be conducted with full transparency”.
He told The National: “We have witnessed 22 months of genocide in Gaza, tens of thousands of innocent lives lost, entire generations of families have been wiped out, and now Gaza has the highest rate of child amputees globally.
“People are being displaced repeatedly, they are being starved, the meagre aid provided is being weaponised against them, and still, there is no end in sight. Some of the most horrific war crimes in recent history are still being live streamed by the perpetrators.
“For Lindsay Hoyle to undertake a so-called 'solidarity visit' in these circumstances is deplorable, and the fact he now wants to keep his correspondence private suggests that he knows this should never have happened in the first place.”
Hoyle came close to losing his job early last year, after he bent parliamentary procedure to help Keir Starmer dodge a potentially embarrassing backbench rebellion when the SNP forced a vote on a [[Gaza]] ceasefire.
A spokesperson for the House of Commons said: "The Speaker – like counterparts across the globe – engages in correspondence with senior politicians and officials from a range of countries. It is a well-established principle that, to enable a free and frank exchange of views, that correspondence is confidential. It may also be subject to parliamentary privilege.
“In November 2023, as was made clear at the time, the Speaker visited both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This was in line with similar visits from fellow Speakers from other European countries.
"He met the Speaker of the Knesset, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, and the Speaker of the Palestinian National Council.”
The House of Commons previously denied that Hoyle had “personally” intervened to block the correspondence from being published.
