Furious MPs are plotting to oust the Commons Speaker after he threw Keir Starmer a lifeline in a “stitch up” over a crunch Gaza vote.
Conservative and Scottish nationalists walked out in protest after Sir Lindsay Hoyle defied official advice to give a ruling that favoured Labour.
Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt unleashed a furious attack on the one-time Labour MP for allowing himself to be dragged into party politics.
She said: “I fear that this most grave matter that we’re discussing today and this afternoon has become a political row within the Labour Party and that regrettably Mr Speaker has inserted himself into that row with today’s decision and undermined the confidence of this House in being able to rely on its long-established standing orders to govern its debates.”
She told the Commons the decision had “raised temperatures” on an issue where feelings are already running high and it had put MPs in a more difficult position.
The Scottish National Party had called an opposition day debate on a ceasefire in Gaza.
But the Speaker went against normal procedures to allow Labour to hijack the vote with their own version of calls for fighting to end.
It meant Labour did not face a rebellion after months of deep unrest about Sir Keir’s approach to the conflict.
