All of us at ConservativeHome are shocked and saddened by the death of Sir David, who was stabbed multiple times in his constituency surgery today.
Plus: Free school meals, Pointless Celebrities, Bower’s book And: “Did the honourable lady just call me scum?” Your chance to drink to that.
This Commons has been excoriated over Brexit, but nothing becomes it like its ending. By putting Hoyle and Bryant in the final, it turned its back on the Bercow era.
But Laing’s 127 votes have to divide roughly five to one if he is to beat Hoyle – who therefore remains favourite.
Laing has 122 votes, Bryant 120. Unless the candidates who withdraw transfer disproportionately to one of them, Hoyle seems to be home and dry.
The candidates for the Speakership competed to show how different they will be from the man who has just stepped down.
The Business Secretary argues that Parliament’s actions are “discouraging businesses from taking the steps they need to take”, and holding up private sector investment.
Plus: Sky News troll themselves. How the next Speaker might surprise you. And: Labour moderates are still deluded about their Party’s future.
“Dignity, kindness, authority rather than bossiness, and I do believe that those things could be brought to the Chair by a woman.”
If they want a more old-fashioned product, they may go for Lindsay Hoyle. If someone more like the present incumbent, for Harriet Harman.
The two Conservative MPs have been included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
The moment when John Bercow announced Eleanor Laing’s victory in today’s ballot, “a contest which showed the House at its best”.
The bookies’ favourite, Eleanor Laing MP, has triumphed in today’s ballot.
An awkward question for Burns – which MP called John Bercow a “stupid, sanctimonious dwarf”?