Two MPs were ordered to leave the House of Commons after trying to launch a protest before Prime Minister's Questions. Alba Party pair Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey were escorted out of the chamber after being ordered to leave by the visibly furious Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle in chaotic scenes at the start of the session.
Mr MacAskill could be heard trying to raise a point of order and appeared to say “we need a referendum in the Prime Minister” before he was drowned out by other MPs immediately prior to PMQ's getting underway.
Mr Johnson, who had just got to his feet, could be seen waving at him to sit down before Speaker Hoyle intervened and told them to sit down. However, Mr MacAskill refused to sit down and continued to speak, prompting Sir Lindsay to act amid a barracking from both sides of the house.
Mr Hanvey also rose to his feet but could not be heard over the heckling from Tory MPs. "I will not tolerate such behaviour," Mr Hoyle said. "If you want to go out, go out now, but if you stand again I will order you out. Make your mind up. Either shut up or get out."
He was also forced to tell Tory MPs to 'shut up' as he tried to bring the situation under control.
Both MPs were given warnings that if they "failed to comply with my order" they would be named and could be suspended from the house. After asking officials for their names, he then named both and told them to leave the chamber, ordering the Serjeant at Arms to remove them.
They were subsequently suspended from the chamber. The Speaker didn't say how long the suspension would be for, but there are only 10 days left until summer recess.
The Alba party is a Scottish pro-independence party founded in 2021 and led by former SNP leader Alex Salmond.
In a tweet issued after his expulsion from the Commons, East Lothian MP and the party's deputy leader Mr MacAskill said their protest concerned Mr Johnson's rejection last week of a request from Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for the authority to hold a second independence referendum.
" @JNHanvey and I have asserted that Scotland’s voice will be heard in the face of a discredited PM’s continuing veto over a S30 order that would allow a consented and legal Scottish Independence Referendum to take place in accordance with the democratic mandate given by Scots" Mr MacAskill's tweet said.
He shared a letter to Mr Johnson in which the pair say: "Scotland cannot, and will not, be held hostage within a Union completely detached from the needs, realities, and aspirations of her people.
"While one in three of our people live in fuel poverty, Scotland is energy rich with abundant resources far greater than our needs. For decades now, this wealth has contributed immeasurably to the energy security of these islands, yet the revenues have only served to feed the largesse of the UK Treasury.
"Meanwhile some of the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society face the prospect of freezing and going without food this winter.
"This indefensible failure of your government and its inability to meaningfully tackle the cost-of-living catastrophe, are feeding a groundswell of people in Scotland who demand another say on their constitutional future."
At what was Mr Johnson's penultimate PMQ's the PM said he was "leaving with my head held high" though Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Johnson was "totally deluded to the bitter end."
READ NEXT:
- A legacy of broken promises: What Boris Johnson's tenure meant for Greater Manchester - and where we go from here
- The Northern Agenda: 'We need a Minister for the North'
- Tory leadership election: everyone who's standing and what they're promising
- Family tragedy, racism and a high-flying City career: How Sajid Javid rose from a Rochdale terraced house to become a contender for the next Prime Minister
- Date millions will receive DWP cost of living payment this month
