Months of political turmoil have ‘upset’ me – and MPs need to get back to their day job, Speaker tells Sky News
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has told Sky News that the last few months of political turmoil have “upset” him and he wants MPs to get back to their day job of serving their constituents.
Speaking to the Beth Rigby Interviews… programme, the Chorley MP said “we’ve never seen anything like this before” following turbulence which has seen three prime ministers in two months.
He admitted the “churn was unexpected” and although he was not angry about it, he was upset.
“I get upset because, in the end, it’s about the people of this country, the government has been elected and it’s our constituents who are going to suffer,” he said.
“We’ve got to look after them and stability is what we need now.”
The Speaker has the unusual position in the House of Commons of being non-partisan and they renounce all their political affiliations when taking office as they assume the responsibility of maintaining order during debates.
Sir Lindsay, who has been in place since 2019, believes the UK should “now hopefully have a settled period” and insisted there will not be a general election soon.
Opposition MPs have been clamouring for an election as they say there have now been two Conservative MPs – Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – who have not been elected by the country.
He added: “There isn’t going to be an election, they’re the elected government and I just can’t see one happening soon.
“I genuinely believe people of this country need representation, I think and hope we’re going to go through a very calm period to ensure that.”
Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he would not ‘run around the jungle eating kangaroo’s testicles’
I’m not going to run around a jungle eating kangaroo’s testicles
The Speaker had some strong words for former health secretary Matt Hancock after he revealed this week he will be appearing on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! – which got him suspended from the Tory parliamentary party.
“Would I do it? I’m a member of parliament, am I going to go running around a jungle eating kangaroo’s testicles? Absolutely not,” he said.
“No, no, I wouldn’t do it.”
But he said ultimately it is not what he thinks about the decision, it is what Mr Hancock’s constituents think as “they’re the people who matter”.
“He’ll come back and he’ll have to answer to his constituents,” he said.
“He’s made that decision and his constituents will make their voice heard, they’ll let him know what they think.”
Sir Lindsay was disparaging about Matt Hancock’s decision to go on I’m a Celebrity
I want this to be a workplace of respect
Sir Lindsay also spoke about allegations of abuse within parliament, saying any staff who come forward are supported and he is trying to make sure everyone is “respected and treated fairly”.
He admitted anything that “tarnishes” parliament’s image is “not good” as the general public look to politicians for leadership.
Sir Lindsay said standards “have got to improve and we have done things to make sure people can come forward”.
He added that the rules now mean people have the ability to report “without intimidation and to be assessed independently”.
Sir Lindsay said behaviour in parliament needs to improve but it is much easier for people to report abuse now
“I would encourage people to report – and people are reporting now more than they were,” he said.
He added if it is serious “go straight to the police, please report them and we do support people in the house”.
“I want this to be a workplace that’s respected, we’ve been trying to ensure people are treated fairly and there’s recognition and respect for everyone.
“We’ve got to make sure everyone’s looked after, not just MPs, it’s MPs’ staff and house staff – they’re important to me.”
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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