The UK House of Commons passed a Labour Party amendment calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday as Parliament erupted after Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle went against convention to select two amendments to a Scottish National Party (SNP) ceasefire motion for voting. The move has resulted in calls for Hoyle’s resignation and has prompted criticism from the SNP.

The SNP officially tabled its motion “calling on the UK government and parliament to press for an immediate ceasefire” on Tuesday. The party made several calls for an immediate ceasefire since the beginning of Israel’s invasion of Gaza and forced a vote in November 2023. SNP party leader Stephen Flynn MP urged Westminster to back a ceasefire last week prior to the voting.

The Labour and Conservative parties proposed amendments to the SNP’s motion. Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle broke convention when he selected both the government and Labour party amendments to the motion when only the government amendments are meant to be selected, as convention holds that an opposition party cannot amend another’s motion. The move was met with jeering and chaos plus calls for Hoyle’s resignation, prompting Conservative and SNP MPs to walk out of the Commons in protest.

Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, announced that the government was pulling out of the proceedings as a result of the move. Consequentially, the SNP was unable to vote, while the Labour supported its own amendment, circumventing a second “rebellion” of MPs supporting the SNP’s ceasefire motion.

The Commons then voted on a motion to sit in private in a rare move, with the last private session being in 2001. The motion was met with 20 “ayes” and 212 “noes.”

MP Stewart McDonald said on X (formerly Twitter):

We brought forward a motion in a the normal way, expecting the normal rules and procedures to apply. Instead, we had to contend with a grubby deal that was hatched in Starmer’s office and sealed in the Speaker’s office- against the advice of the senior parliamentary clerks.

The ceasefire vote in November drew particular attention to Starmer and his Labour party, as many of his party members “rebelled” against his stance on the conflict. Eight of Starmer’s shadow ministers quit in order to back the SNP’s motion, and 56 Labour MPs voted in the motion’s favor. The scrutiny garnered from this rebellion has led SNP members to attribute the speaker’s actions to an attempt by Starmer to prevent another rebellion during the voting.

Stephen Flynn made a statement following the events in Parliament, saying:

It is a disgrace that Sir Keir Starmer and the Speaker colluded to block Parliament voting on the SNP motion for an immediate ceasefire and agaisnt the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. … The SNP will continue to press the UK government and parliament to back an immediate ceasefire.

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said, “I thought I was doing the right thing and the best thing, and I regret it, and I apologize for how it’s ended up”.

Flynn added in an interview conducted outside of Parliament, “Westminster effectively told us that we’re not getting to have a say tonight. That is ridiculous and flies in the face of what is so-called parliamentary democracy.” He expressed that he was happy that the Labour Party “got to a position where they backed an immediate ceasefire, but there should have been votes tonight.”