MP Paul Bristow faced the humiliation of being asked to leave the House of Commons – seemingly for being too rowdy during Prime Minister’s Questions.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was forced to sit down while the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, interrupted to ask the Peterborough MP to leave the chamber.
“The speaker has ordered the Tory MP Paul Bristow to leave for heckling too loudly,” was how it was reported by The Guardian.
https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1661328730449428480
It came after Sir Keir had challenged prime minister Rishi Sunak on immigration figures.
The speaker fell short of ‘naming’ Mr Bristow, a Parliamentary convention that would have allowed him to suspend Mr Bristow.
Conservative MP Paul Bristow, asked about his forced exit at PMQs, told @martinabettt: “I got a little over-excited.”https://t.co/JFMv6RJ5UX
— Richard Wheeler (@richard_kaputt) May 24, 2023
The Speaker said: “Mr Bristow, I think you’ve got to be leaving. I’m asking you to leave now otherwise I’ll name you. I’m not having it and I’ve warned you before.
“It’s the same people.”
Fact file
Disorderly conduct
The Speaker is responsible for keeping order in the Chamber and in Committees and if Members disregard the authority of the Chair, he can ask the Member to voluntarily leave the Chamber for the remainder of the day’s sitting. This request is not governed by Standing Orders and the MP can stay on the parliamentary estate and take part in Divisions. Should the Member refuse to comply with this request the Speaker can invoke SO No 43:
- The Speaker, or the chair, shall order any Member or Members whose conduct is grossly disorderly to withdraw immediately from the House during the remainder of that day’s sitting; and the Serjeant at Arms shall act on such orders as he may receive from the chair in pursuance of this order. But if on any occasion the Speaker, or the chair, deems that his powers under the previous provisions of this order are inadequate, he may name such Member or Members, in which event the same procedure shall be followed as is prescribed by Standing Order No. 44 (Order in debate).
- https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1661328947416641540
This requires the Member to leave the parliamentary estate for the remainder of that day’s sitting. If this order is disregarded, the MP can be named under SO No 44:
44.—(1) Whenever a Member shall have been named by the Speaker, or by the chair, immediately after the commission of the offence of disregarding the authority of the chair, or of persistently and wilfully obstructing the business of the House by abusing the rules of the House or otherwise, then if the offence has been committed by such Member in the House, the Speaker shall forthwith put the question, on a motion being made, ‘That such Member be suspended from the service of the House.’
