Lindsay Hoyle LIVE: Commons Speaker issues apology as more than 60 MPs call for him to quit

‘King Charles should summon the Prime Minister and tell him to call a general election, now’

The Mirror’s Paul Routledge gives his analysis on last night’s ‘melodramatic show’:

In the days when we had coalminers, they would have called it “a rag-up”. Furious Tory MPs walked out of the Commons – their workplace – without a ballot or even a show of hands. Their unofficial strike handed Labour victory in the controversy over Israel’s war on Gaza.

Parliament’s official policy is now to demand an immediate ceasefire, on all sides, accompanied by release of prisoners held by Hamas and moves towards and ultimate two-state solution. That’s the outcome of a heated debate, in which MPs expressed fears for their own safety at the hands of protesters.

At one level, it doesn’t matter a tinker’s toss, because the Israel government takes no notice of the Americans, much less the House of Commons. But this melodramatic show of shopfloor militancy by Tory MPs is indicative of a deeper malaise. Conservatives had their rag up because they’d been outmanoeuvred, and feared they couldn’t muster a majority for their own policy.

That’s why Penny Mordaunt, the terrifying Leader of the House, had to withdraw the government’s mealy-mouthed proposal for a pause in the fighting. She blamed Sir Keir for causing the trouble because of his “weak” leadership. On the contrary, it was the Tories’ lack of confidence in their own troops that handed a win to Labour.

As parliamentary expert Sir Chris Bryant pointed out, by convention a government that has lost control of its foreign policy has to resign. He’s right. Rishi Sunak, battered by his Right-wing nutters who want to bring back Trussonomics, has also lost control of economic policy.

It’s the season for revisiting the rules. I have one radical suggestion for constitutional action: King Charles should summon the Prime Minister and tell him to call a general election, now.