Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has unveiled the contents of this year's spring budget in the House of Commons, the last scheduled budget before the next general election.
Many people expected to see the speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, chairing the parliamentary session but he was absent from the chamber. Instead, the deputy speaker, Dame Eleanor Laing, chaired proceedings.
Sir Lindsay has recently faced calls for his resignation following his controversial decision to allow a vote on a Labour amendment to an opposition day motion on the Gaza conflict.
However, his absence at the budget statement is not related to this controversy. The deputy speaker chairing the budget is actually a long-standing tradition in the UK, which dates back to the 17th century.
Why did some MPs lose confidence in Lindsay Hoyle?
Several Conservative and SNP MPs have called for Sir Lindsay’s resignation following his contentious decision to allow Labour’s Gaza vote, prompting 93 MPs to sign a letter of no confidence in the speaker.
The speaker is strictly neutral on all matters but was accused of partisanship after he took the unprecedented step of allowing a vote on Labour’s ceasefire motion.
The decision was seen as letting Sir Keir Starmer off the hook, by enabling him to avoid a potential rebellion by his party over the Tory motion.
Sir Lindsay issued an apology following the vote: “I have tried to do what I thought was the right thing for all sides of this House.
“It is regrettable and I apologise that the decision didn’t end up in the place that I wished.”
He went on to argue that what he did had been necessary for the safety of MPs because of the strong feelings the Israel-Hamas conflict has created in the UK.
Who is Dame Eleanor Laing?
Dame Eleanor Laing has been Conservative MP for Epping Forest since 1997.
Born in Paisley, Scotland, she was privately educated at St Columba’s School before graduating from Edinburgh University. She then practised as a solicitor in Edinburgh and the City of London.
Over the course of her political career, Laing has served in the shadow cabinets of Michael Howard and David Cameron, as Shadow Minister for Justice, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Shadow Minister for Women, Shadow Minister for Children and Education and Skills spokesman and opposition whip.
Since 2013, Laing has served as a deputy speaker of the House of Commons and, since 2020, as chairman of ways and means, making her the senior deputy speaker, and the first woman to hold this post.
Laing received her damehood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2018.
Why is the Deputy Speaker chairing the budget?
The chair of the ways and means, the formal title for the deputy speaker, is the one who traditionally chairs the opening statement and debate of the budget. However, there have been occasions where the speaker has chaired the budget, notably in 1968 and 1989.
The history behind the office of ways and means stems from the need for independent oversight of the budget.
The UK Parliament website reads: “Until at least the 18th century, Speakers were placed in an increasingly untenable and dangerous position: meant to represent the House’s interests to the King on the one hand, and the King’s interests to the House on the other.
“After the Restoration, in the late 17th century, the Commons resolved that whenever it was to consider the financial demands of the King, it would need to resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, chaired by its ‘own man’, rather than the Speaker, who was seen as the King’s spy.”
