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Sir Lindsay Hoyle has been returned unopposed as Speaker of the House of Commons, as parliament returned after last week’s momentous general election and more than 400 Labour MPs crammed into a packed chamber.
Hoyle’s re-election on Tuesday marks the start of a new phase of British politics, with Sir Keir Starmer’s parliamentary party so large that many of his MPs had to watch proceedings from the visitor’s gallery.
The first sitting highlighted the brutal shift in power, with only 121 Conservatives remaining and with 72 Liberal Democrats replacing as the third largest party a shrunken Scottish National party with just nine MPs.
Starmer said the new parliament was “the most diverse parliament by race and gender this House has ever seen”, adding that it had “the largest cohort of LGBT MPs of any parliament in the world”.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes ousted prime minister Rishi Sunak held his first shadow cabinet meeting, as he took on a new role as interim opposition leader, pending the election of a new Conservative leader.
Tory officials said there were “frank discussions” at shadow cabinet about the party’s disastrous defeat, while former chancellor Jeremy Hunt tried to explain why Sunak had gone to the polls earlier than expected on July 4.
“Jeremy said the advice from Treasury officials was that he would not have been able to deliver tax cuts in the autumn,” said one person briefed on the discussions.
Hunt told his colleagues that public sector pay demands would have used up the government’s fiscal headroom and that over the summer another 135,000 households every month would have paid higher costs on their mortgages as their fixed-rate deals ended.
“That would have dwarfed any feelgood factor from Bank of England rate cuts,” the person briefed on the discussions said.
In the Commons chamber, Sunak promised the Conservatives would perform a new role as the official opposition “professionally, effectively and honestly”.
Sunak also confirmed he would continue to serve his Richmond constituency in North Yorkshire, saying that to represent local people was the “greatest honour” and that it “keeps you grounded”.
The Tory leader has said he would stay on in an interim capacity until new arrangements are put in place to choose his successor, with his allies saying he was expected to continue until the autumn.
For Sir Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, it was a moment of celebration as his party reclaimed its position as the third party at Westminster.
He will now get the SNP’s spacious old offices near the Commons chamber and will get to ask two questions of the prime minister every week, instead of only a single question every six weeks.
On Tuesday he assembled his 71 fellow Lib Dem MPs for a photo shoot in Westminster Hall, but only after promising parliamentary authorities that he would not stage stunts like he did during his colourful election campaign.
For 335 out of the 650 MPs this was their first time sitting on the green benches and many were still finding their way around. One new member became stuck in a revolving door on Monday night.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, made his first remarks in the Commons after seven previous attempts to become an MP. He and his four fellow MPs were “the new kids on the block”, Farage said.
While the first day in the Commons is usually marked by generous tributes and light humour, Farage defied convention, stating Hoyle had acted with “great neutrality” unlike his predecessor, the pro-EU John Bercow.
“You act with great neutrality, unlike the little man who was there before you and besmirched the office and tried to overturn the biggest democratic decision of this country,” Farage said, to groans.
Meanwhile, the SNP held a “memorial service” in Portcullis House as staff gathered to express commiserations to colleagues who would not be returned to the house after the party was eviscerated at the polls. The party was down to nine MPs from 48 in 2019.
