British MPs elected Monday, November 4, Labor Lindsay Hoyle as Speaker of the House of Commons to succeed John Bercow, who had been in office for ten years.
As a favorite, the 62-year-old MP was elected in the fourth round with 325 votes out of 540. As the first deputy to John Bercow since 2010, he faced seven other candidates.
In a country devoid of a written Constitution and where the organization of Parliament is based on conventions, John Bercow has transformed the once essentially decorative function of "speaker" of the Commons into an instrument of power, which has earned him the worst invective of Brexit.
The conservative 56-year-old, who loves gaudy ties, set the date of his departure to October 31, the day the UK was supposed to leave the European Union, an exit finally postponed, for the third time, to January 31, 2020 .
"I will be transparent"
"I will be neutral, I will be transparent," promised Lindsay Hoyle after the vote. "This room will change, but it will change to better," he said.
He will have the delicate task of leading the debates on the Brexit, in front of a Parliament whose face will be defined by the elections of December 12.
With AFP and Reuters