A “bullying culture” in parliament is now over, the new Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, has said in a veiled criticism of his predecessor, John Bercow, who was in the post for almost a decade.
Hoyle, who was elected in November 2019, said he was in contact with people who have made bullying allegations against Bercow, which the former Speaker vehemently denies.
Bercow has faced allegations of poor behaviour towards the former Black Rod David Leakey, as well as the former clerk of the house Lord Lisvane. Both have submitted bullying complaints. Bercow has always denied any such allegations.
Lindsay Hoyle was born in Adlington, Lancashire, in 1957. The son of the former Labour MP Doug Hoyle, before entering politics he ran his own textile and screen printing business. Hoyle has been married twice, and had two daughters. One of them, Natalie Lewis-Hoyle, died in 2017 aged 28.
Hoyle was elected Labour MP for Chorley in 1997, and was elevated to deputy speaker of the House of Commons under John Bercow in 2010. He was elected Speaker in November 2019, succeeding Bercow.
As deputy speaker it was his job to chair the government’s budget speeches, and he also was in the chair in 2017 when he ordered the SNP to stop singing the European Union anthem Ode To Joy in the chamber.
As Speaker, Hoyle is obliged to renounce his former political affiliation, and remain strictly neutral. In hustings to take the role as Speaker, Hoyle said parliament needed to crack down on a drink and drugs culture. In his acceptance speech, he said he wanted the British parliament to once again be the envy of the world.
Martin Belam
Hoyle, the MP for Chorley, said he was never bullied personally by Bercow as he served as his deputy, but he knew of people who had accused him of doing so.
“The bullying culture is over. We are not going to tolerate it,” he told reporters at a gathering of the press gallery in Westminster on Thursday. “Let’s have a new beginning. Let’s have a new start.”
Hoyle said he had never been intimidated by Bercow, and they had one slight disagreement, which had been witnessed by others: “Personally, I can honestly say I didn’t witness it but I do speak to people who may or may not have been subjected.
“So I do keep in contact with some members of staff of this house and I don’t want to go deeper than that because I don’t think it’s fair to them either.”
He added: “This was an unhappy place to work. I think there has been bullying in parliament. I’ve never shied away from that.”
On whether the former Speaker should be given a place in the House of Lords, Hoyle said his name should be put forward but then scrutinised, and that he should face vetting.
More generally, Hoyle argued, the Commons needed “a culture change”. He said: “If the chamber is more calm, the way we speak to each other is better. I think that people reflect differently towards MPs.”
Hoyle also said he would permit MPs to breastfeed in the chamber, saying it was not right for a man to decide what a woman does with her body. Other changes he raised included introducing an on-site doctor and closing the road outside the building to further protect parliament’s employees.
Lisvane made a formal complaint about Bercow to the parliamentary commissioner for standards this month.
Leakey sent a dossier to the standards commissioner detailing his “bullying, intimidation and unacceptable behaviour”, which he first raised in 2017.
