It was absolute chaos trying to figure out what happened here, what the Speaker did wrong, and why so many people were angry, especially the SNP. Can someone explain like I’m five? Thanks in advance.
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None of the other descriptions of events are quite right. This is a fairly accurate brief summary:
Yesterday was an SNP ‘Opposition Day’. The SNP proposed a motion on a ceasefire in Gaza
Labour wanted to vote for a ceasefire, but took issue with some of the SNP wording (specifically that they accused Israel of collective punishment (which is a war crime) in their motion)
Normally on Opposition Days there is a vote on the motion and then a vote on the Government’s amendment to that motion
On this occasion Labour’s proposed amendment was accepted for consideration and, by convention, the vote on that amendment would precede the vote on the original motion, and if the amendment was accepted then the vote on the original motion would be ‘as amended’ (ie. they wouldn’t be able to vote on the original wording, only on the wording ‘as amended’). Accepting Labour’s amendment for consideration is highly unusual for Parliament
Because the Labour amendment was expected to pass, the SNP and other sympathetic MPs would have no opportunity to vote on the SNP motion even though it was an SNP Opposition Day. The SNP were upset about this, as were the Tories, because if Labour hadn’t got their amendment accepted the Labour Party would have been split on voting for the SNP motion
EDIT to add some more context on the upset:
The Speaker breaking from the Parliamentary norm (not unprecedented, but very rare) to allow this Labour amendment – which helped the Labour leadership avoid potential embarrassment – is seen by some as evidence that the Speaker was not acting impartially
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