What happened in the House of Commons tonight?

[Bookridden]

I'm struggling to understand what is going on and would be grateful is someone can explain to me in simple terms.

Why were Labour worried about the safety of MPs?

Why were the SNP unhappy?

Why were the Tories unhappy?

What's likely to happen next?

Are MPs who don't take a Pro-Palestinian stance really putting their lives at risk?

It is virtually unprecedented. As far as I understand it there’s one known other time this has happened. I’d be interested to know the circumstances of the other occasion.

The Chief Clerk - who’s his legal and procedural advisor - advised Hoyle that the course of action was wrong.

I really don’t think there’s any sensible defence for this.

I'm with you

What a waste of effort all round

We have no authority over Israel or Gaza.

There was no SNP amendment; the motion was the SNP's. They were angry because if the Labour motion passed (which it did), there would be no opportunity for the SNP to vote on their own motion, against long-standing precedent.

We do sell weapons and parts to be used in Gaza, so if the government voted for a ceasefire it might affect arms selling regulation in the UK.

Frankly, no. There are nuances between the positions, but it's more a bunfight over parliamentary procedure at this point. As you say, it will have zero impact in the Middle East.

But the Labour motion wasn't expected to pass because the Tories would vote against it, and then the SNP would have their motion. But the Tories refused to vote.

Dh brought me up to speed with this tonight with the comments it was politics at its worst. All parties equally to blame and tbh I feel.sorry for Lindsey Hoyle. If the tories stand against him at the next election they won't win , I work near his constituency he's actually quite a.good constituency MP and well liked. The tory vote.in the North West is collapsing aided by HS2 for starters. SNP tabled the motion to fire at labour there second planned motion on green energy was the same. They are loosing ground rapidly in Scotland. Labour can't vote for something that basically names.the state of Israel as war criminals and terrorists, they will probably have to sit down and work with them soon. Tories withdrew there vote as they wanted to delay things then JRM stood up to say the motion should be re done as knowbody could hear the speaker calling for the vote, seemingly missing the point the tory bench were doing there normal cat calling and yelling causing most of the noise. Unfortunately the motion will change nothing other than the spectical.of parliament degrading into a.school.yard brawl. If this is the next 10 months perhaps we could have the election now, shame the Monarch has lost the right ro dissolve parliament

You mean, unlike the chaos of the last five years?

I haven't read the full thread (sorry!) and not sure I completely understand what's happened today ... but... is the claim that mps will potentially be in danger if they don't vote for a ceasefire in gaza? And, if so, isn't that the more important discussion - that our politicians are quite literally scared of picking the 'wrong side' in a foreign war?

Political game playing over a meaningless motion that will have no effect on anything. Clearly they prefer to do this rather than fixing the country.

Pre planned sabotage to keep their US cronies happy who voted against a ceasefire. That's what happened.

Well it didn't work then because the Labour motion calling for an immediate ceasefire passed.

@kitfree1
It is not an 'accurate summary'. For one thing, the poster you quote (@Lampslights) refers to the 'snp amendment'. The SNP did not table an amendment. They tabled the original motion. For another thing, the Speaker's name is Lindsay (not 'Lesley') Hoyle. Finally, there is no evidence that 'it’s very clear he tried to sway it for starmer'. Nothing that happened is 'very clear' in terms of motivation.

As far as I know, no MP has previously suggested that Hoyle is biased against the government, or indeed against any group of MPs. Maybe we should see what accusations, etc. are (or are not) levelled against him when Parliamentarians have had time to calm down a bit.

all of this over a meaningless motion that neither Hamas nor Israel will care about 🤦‍♀️

It did pass, but again, this was a questionable decision. The deputy speaker asked shadow leader to move her amendment and the house erupted in protest. Deputy speaker took this to mean 'aye'.

The whole thing stinks. I'm ashamed of our Parliament and the Speaker this evening. He bowed to pressure from his Labour colleagues, against the advice of the clerk.

Sue Gray was seen going towards his office yet he denies meeting her.

This is a taste of what Labour will be like in government. I don't like it one bit.

I think Labours amendment also called for the release of hostages etc. Labour can’t support a motion that basically doesn’t mention hamas or calls Israels government war criminals (thats for the ICJ to decide).

Tbh I doubt the Israeli government or Hamas are just waiting to hear what the British Parliament thinks of all this before deciding what to do next 🙄.

Theres an election this year for the actual UK and Gaza/Israel is sucking all the air out of the room whilst the UK really needs to have a word with itself for being a right bloody state at the moment. Yes it’s important but we don’t have that much influence over it and we need to be hearing what exactly the future looks like here.

And if you are trying to mob, intimidate, threaten and harrass MP’s then you are fundamentally undemocratic. It’s perfectly valid not to vote for someone because of 1 stance or to lobby your MP, it’s not ok for MP’s to be scared because someone is threatening to murder them.

I saw a yougov tracker that said when asked about whether their sympathies lie with Palestinians or Israels about 65% were either don’t know or neither. Thats 65% of the population not nearly as invested in this as you would be led to believe.

Perhaps it will.

Now muslim terrorist organisations around the world have seen that they have a fan club in the UK, who will openly support them.

Freely calling for murder and terror on the streets of the UK, with no repercussions .

Adding to that, this fan club can actually publicly scare and pressure our MP's into resigning, 'siding' with who they want them to, and into going against conventions.

It will probably embolden them and the radical elements already here to wonder what else they can do.

You can’t say the controversy is about parliamentary procedure and criticise the poster for saying the controversy is less about Gaza. This is wedge politics at its best. Instead of compromising for the greater good they were all playing politics.

There was an opportunity to vote on Gaza, indeed 3 opportunities. Would you rather vote or make a procedural point to embarrass your political rivals?

They are all showing their ass. A motion or selection of motions in favour of peace that all MPs could get behind was needed. This vote is entirely symbolic in terms of advocating peace. But diplomatically it needs to allow Britains to retain whatever influence it has.

The SNP are always agitating - despite 16years of miserable and incompetent governance in Scotland they really focus on student politic campaigning against big bad Westminster (the Tories gift them this to be fair)

Time better spent on the things they have responsibilty for - and the woeful state Scotland is in right now.
They have decided to jump on this particular bandwagon as a distraction as they are tanking in the polls north of the border. The fact that Humza Yousaf’s family have strong ties to Gaza probably accounts for a lot of this - he has been involved in some spurious channeling of public funds which should have been used for domestic purposes only.

Yes this is what happened. Appalling.

This was my thought too. It seems a bit rich given everything that has gone on before.

This 100 times over. It is ludicrous and frightening.

This.

It should be looked at in all this rather than accepted

This.