MPs took their seats in the new Parliament on Tuesday with their first task being to choose a Commons Speaker.
Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh, the MP with the longest continuous service in Parliament, presided over the election of the Speaker.
Former Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, indicated as expected that he was willing to be chosen again.
Sir Edward called Labour MP Cat Smith to move a motion that he take the Chair as Speaker.
The motion was agreed by the House, by shouts of “Aye”, with no “Noes”, and therefore Sir Lindsay took the chair as Speaker-elect.
By tradition, the bells of St Margaret’s Church, opposite Parliament, will ring out between 6pm and 7pm on Wednesday to mark the re-election of the Speaker.
Sir Lindsay said he would continue to be “fair, impartial and independent”.
He told the Commons: “It’s been an absolute privilege to serve this House as the 158th speaker. I’ve got to say that four and a half years have flown.
“With the authority of the chair comes great responsibility, which is something that I’ve never taken lightly or for granted.
“I know from experience that decisions have consequences, but with experience comes wisdom and if re-elected I will be guided by that as I continue to be fair, impartial and independent.”
Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s speech was littered with light-hearted moments and reflections as he referred to the “Rees-Mogg conga”, in a nod to the queuing system set up for votes by former Commons leader Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg during the pandemic.
He added: “It was of course an honour to represent this House at the lying in state of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, to present the address to the new King in Westminster Hall, to attend his coronation.
“Needless to say in this role you need staying power. I’ve already been the speaker during the tenure of three prime ministers, two monarchs and one Jim Shannon.”
If the motion had been rejected there would have been an election by secret ballot.
The new House of Commons includes the largest number of women ever elected, 263, some 40 per cent of the total.
The youngest MP is Labour’s Sam Carling, 22.
He is one of 412 Labour MP elected last week who will cram onto green benches on the government side of the Commons.
Opposite them will be a shrunken contingent of 121 Conservatives.
There will be a vastly increased number of Liberal Democrats, 72 strong, and a smattering of representatives from other parties including the environmentalist Green Party, four MPs, Reform UK, five MPs, as well as a number of independents, including ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who fought the election with the Gaza war a prominent issue.
As the new MPs were settling in, former parliamentarians who lost their seats were packing up their offices.
The speaker-elect is taken to the House of Lords by an official known as Black Rod to receive Royal Approbation, the formal approval of King Charles III.
Back in the Commons, the winner will feign reluctance and be dragged to the Speaker’ chair by colleagues, a tradition dating back to the days when speakers could be sentenced to death if they displeased the monarch.
Once the Speaker is in place, MPs will be sworn in, taking an oath of allegiance to the king and “his heirs and successors”.
Members can swear on a religious text of their choice or make a non-religious affirmation.
They must take the oath in English first, and can repeat it in Welsh, Ulster Scots, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Cornish.
The Father of the House is sworn in first, followed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the Cabinet, senior members of the official opposition and then remaining MPs in order of their length of service.
After all MPs are sworn in, a task expected to take several days, the Commons will rise until July 17, when a new session will formally start with the State Opening of Parliament.
The new government will set out its legislative plans for the coming year in a speech read by the King from a golden throne in the Lords.
The King’s Speech is expected to include plans to establish a publicly owned green power company called Great British Energy, change planning rules to allow more new homes to be built and nationalise Britain’s delay-plagued railways.
