Sir Lindsay Hoyle scolds Boris Johnson for calling Starmer hypocritical, warning ‘we’re tidying up this Parliament’

WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle has scolded the Prime Minister for calling Sir Keir Starmer hypocritical, warning “we’re tidying up how this Parliament behaves”.

The House of Commons Speaker told the leadership of the two main parties to be careful about the words they use towards each other.  

The intervention came in a debate during Prime Minister’s Questions over free school meals, after families were sent “disgraceful” food parcels.  

The Prime Minister told the Commons on Wednesday: “[Sir Keir’s] words would be less hypocritical and absurd if it were not for the fact that the…”

Sir Lindsay interrupted: “I don’t believe anybody is a hypocrite in this chamber. I think we need to be a little bit careful about what we are saying to each other. 

"There was a not truth earlier and there was also comparisons to others.  Please let’s keep the discipline in this chamber and the respect for each other. 

"We’re tidying up how this Parliament behaves and I certainly expect the leadership of both parties to ensure that takes place. Prime Minister would you like to withdraw ‘hypocrisy’?”

The PM replied: “I’m delighted to be advised by you Mr Speaker and he can find my criticism to the absurdity - which I hope is acceptable - of [Sir Keir] attacking us over free school meals when it was a Conservative government that instituted free school meals…not a Labour government.”

Sir Lindsay later cut off Mr Johnson as he spoke about issues from the past rather than answering Sir Keir's question. 

During the discussion the Prime Minister described some of the meagre free school meal parcels handed out to children as "disgraceful".

Mr Johnson told the Commons: "I don't think anybody in this House is happy with the disgraceful images that we've seen of the food parcels that have been offered.

"They're appalling, they're an insult to the families that have received them."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in