The House of Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, has said parliament may never return to the packed and noisy chamber debates while coronavirus remains a threat – but said he would be keen to cease virtual contributions as soon as it is safe for MPs to return to Westminster.
Hoyle, who took the Speaker’s chair late last year after John Bercow, warned he would oppose moves to take parliament to York during the restoration of the Palace of Westminster, saying he felt it was important MPs remained in the capital.
“It would be nice to be able to turn the clock back and know that you could have a full chamber without risk,” he told the BBC’s Westminster Hour. “But while there’s risk, I cannot see it. Safety does come first – it’s about protecting people.
“There is no greater day than seeing a packed chamber with everybody jostling to be in there. That’s what brings this House alive, that’s what makes this House. But that won’t happen until we know it’s safe.”
Hoyle said he was keen to return to a system where MPs must make all contributions in person, rather than virtually, but said he “can’t see that happening tomorrow … I think we’re a little bit further away from normality as we knew it.”
Hoyle, the MP for Chorley, said as a Lancastrian it would be “hard to stomach being the Speaker in York” but said he was also serious in his concern about moving parliament out of London – something which has been proposed by Boris Johnson.
MPs are set to decant from Westminster for lengthy restoration works on the crumbling palace. “Joking apart, I think it is important that you’re in the capital city. I think this is the home of parliament,” he said, adding that MPs and peers would ultimately decide the location.
“The one thing all of us can agree on is that we need to get on with doing some repairs. We need to make this place safe, we’ve got to make it fit for purpose. So something will have to happen. But it’s not for me to decide – it’s for the House to decide.”
Hoyle said he was not prepared to relax the 2-metre distancing in parliament for the time being. “I have a duty of care to staff of this House, staff of MPs and MPs themselves … I wanted to hold the rules – people wanted to take the 2-metre rule down – I think it’s been the right thing to do.”
Hoyle said he had been disturbed over recent months about decisions by Downing Street to announce major new policies at press briefings rather than in the Commons.
“If there’s something new to come out and you want to tell the world, tell parliament and let the world watch it from parliament’s eyes,” he said.
“We’re elected to scrutinise. Members are elected to hold the government to account and we’ve got to allow them to do so. And if you’re briefing the press first, that’s not the way forward. It’s not good for Downing Street, it’s not good for relations and it doesn’t endear your own backbenchers. They want to know that they count and that they matter. And I think that’s the way forward for all of us.”