Bewildered Tories Want Fellow Conservative MPs To Leave Lindsay Hoyle Alone

Yet another divide has emerged among fractious Conservative MPs – this time over puttering efforts to remove Lindsay Hoyle as Speaker of the House of Commons after his contentious approach to last week's Gaza ceasefire motion.

In little under a week, 81 MPs, including over forty Tory MPs, had signed Conservative MP William Wragg's Early Day Motion for a vote of no confidence in Hoyle, put forward last Wednesday in protest to the Speaker's unusual decision to select both Labour and Government amendments to the Scottish National Party's (SNP) Opposition Day Motion for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Conservative signatories include senior Tories like Sir Graham Brady, chair of the party's influential 1922 Committee, and MPs representing different wings of the party. It has backers from the right wing of the party like Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger, as well as moderates like Matt Warman and Vicky Ford. 

However, many Conservative MPs who do not plan to back the motion against Hoyle are frustrated at their colleagues' continued pursuit of this particular cause, accusing them of dragging the party and the Government into an unnecessary Westminster row that is ultimately a distraction from the vital task of regaining support among voters.

One Tory MP, a former secretary of state, told PoliticsHome that over the weekend they were approached by a Conservative back bencher who is involved in the effort to oust Hoyle, asking for their support, to which they thought: "What the fuck are you doing?"

"They should do something useful and knock on some doors," said the same MP.

Another Conservative MP said they were bewildered by Tory MPs dragging the party into what was originally a row over parliamentary procedure between the Labour Party and the