Labour MP and deputy Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has been elected by MPs as the new Commons Speaker, after John Bercow stepped down.
After winning the final round of voting against Chris Bryant, Sir Lindsay was dragged to the chair by MPs, where he pledged to be a “neutral” Speaker.
He also paid tribute to his daughter, Natalie, who died in 2017, saying she would “always be missed”.
The Speaker keeps order in Commons debates and calls MPs to speak.
Speakers must be politically impartial, which means Sir Lindsay will be required to resign from the Labour Party in order to carry out his role.
Mr Bercow stood down last week after an eventful and frequently controversial decade in the Speaker’s chair. His resignation as MP for Buckingham was officially confirmed on Monday.
In the fourth and final round of voting, Sir Lindsay – who has been Mr Bercow’s senior deputy for years – received 325 votes to Labour MP Chris Bryant’s 213.
Sir Lindsay, who is the MP for his home constituency of Chorley, in Lancashire, told MPs that “this House will change, but it will change for the better” and he said he would be a “transparent” Speaker.
He also thanked his staff and family and paid tribute to his daughter, saying: “There is one person who is not here; my daughter Natalie. I wish she could have been here. She was everything to all of us.”
Sir Lindsay’s 28-year-old daughter Natalie Lewis-Hoyle was found dead at her home in Essex in December 2017.
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