Lindsay Hoyle has sparked fury from the Conservative Party after breaking precedent and selecting a Labour amendment to an Opposition Day motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Protocol dictates that the Commons Speaker would only select one of the amendments, and it is highly unusual for an opposition amendment to be selected.
But Hoyle picked both the Government amendment and the Labour amendment to be debated this afternoon.
Starmer will breathe a sigh of relief at the decision as if the Labour amendment hadn't been selected, his MPs would have had to choose between voting for a Government amendment - which stops short of demanding a ceasefire - or rebelling to vote for the SNP motion.
Lindsay Hoyle has sparked fury from the Conservative Party after breaking precedent
PA
The last time a vote took place on this issue, 10 members of his Shadow Cabinet were forced to quit.
The 10 Labour frontbenchers quit after they broke with the party line to vote for the SNP's amendment to the King's Speech calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Gaza.
In an attempt to prevent dozens of his own MPs from rebelling to vote with the SNP on today's motion, Starmer tabled an amendment which takes a similar position.
The decision was against the advice of the Clerk of the House, a letter seen by GB News has shown.
Writing to Hoyle, Clerk of the House Tom Goldsmith warned that “long standing conventions are not being followed in this case”.
However, he acknowledged that Hoyle's decision was "motivated by giving the House what you considered to be the widest choice of decisions on alternative propositions, on a subject of immense importance, on which people outside of the House have the strongest of views".
A senior Tory source suggested Hoyle should resign as a result of the decision to select both amendments, saying: "Speaker Hoyle has amended the constitution on a whim in a totally partisan way. Difficult to see how he can continue [as Speaker].”
The SNP's amendment calls for an “immediate ceasefire” and condemns the “collective punishment” of Palestinians, while Labour's amendment says Israel’s planned assault on Rafah “must not take place”.
It also demands an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” that must be observed by “all sides.”
Labour is expected to whip its MPs to abstain on the SNP motion, and vote for the Labour amendment.
The Government's amendment calls for an "immediate humanitarian pause" whilst also backing Israel's "right to self-defence".
After Hoyle announced which amendments had been selected, shouts of "moving the goalposts" were directed at the Speaker from the Tory benches.
Speaking ahead of the decision, a Government minister warned that this would be a “Bercow-request test” for Hoyle if he selects the Labour amendment.
But Hoyle said the precedent not to select opposition amendments is "outdated".
As Speaker, Bercow made a number of high-profile stands against the government's use of Brexit legislation and was accused of allowing a number of unorthodox challenges by MPs.
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Tory MP Sir Robert Goodwill also compared Hoyle's decision to the approach taken by Bercow, telling GB News: "It sets a new precedent and it will be interesting to see if, next time we have a Labour Opposition Day, if the SNP puts down an amendment whether they'll be suggesting that their amendment should be called as well.
"It does have echoes of the time when John Bercow was the Speaker and was sort of making it up as he goes along."
