Lindsay Hoyle elected new Speaker of the House of Commons – as it happened

LBC has confirmed that the Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, will not host his radio show during the general election campaign, saying the step is designed to ensure compliance with Ofcom rules.

Farage actually addressed the issue as he closed his show last week, saying that remaining a broadcaster and the leader of a political party during an election campaign would “clearly” mean he would “have a bit of a conflict”.

The prime minister has written to the opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, demanding that he set out his position on Brexit and accusing him of wanting to “go back to square one” on the issue.

Boris Johnson, who himself voted against Theresa May’s deal twice – before eventually backing it at the third attempt, claimed Jeremy Corbyn had blocked his Brexit deal when it came before the Commons.

While Labour voted against the bill that would have implemented the deal, it passed its second reading in the Commons. Rather than being blocked, it was in fact pulled by the prime minister after MPs refused to allow him to rush it through parliament.

Accusing the Labour leader of spending “considerable time and energy seeking to undermine the [Brexit] negotiations”, Johnson said Corbyn has also “sought to avoid” setting out a clear Brexit plan of his own:

Your current position seems to be that you want to go back to square one. You want to throw out the great new deal we have reached with our European friends and, instead, negotiate a whole new treaty from scratch. Even assuming the EU agrees to go back to the very beginning, this will take months and possibly years to do – under your proposals, 2020 will be lost to more dither and delay over Brexit. Voters also have the right to know: What would your supposed Brexit ‘deal’ actually take back control of?

For months, you have refused to say what sort of ‘deal’ you want with the EU. Now the time has come for you to come clean, and explain what your plan really is so when the public vote on 12 December, they know what they are voting for.

Speaking to the Guardian today, Corbyn sought to set out his stance on Brexit, saying the party would negotiate a new deal with Brussels – including a closer trading relationship – within three months and put it to the public in a referendum within six. He has insisted Labour will stick to the plan not to declare a possible referendum position until after the election:

Two of the 540 votes cast were spoiled, Clarke told MPs.

Looking at the numbers, while Bryant again increased his vote by the greater proportion of the two candidates – about 26% – Hoyle almost kept pace with him; increasing his own by about 22%, having started from a much higher base.

In the end, it wasn’t that close. Hoyle’s winning margin of 112 represented more than half of Bryant’s total number of final round votes: 213.

It is true, of course, to say there is no base from which to start, with each MP being free to switch their support between rounds – even if their previously preferred candidate is still in the race. But, while each candidate does indeed start from zero in each round, it’s reasonable to assume a large proportion stuck with their candidate.

Back in March 2013, shortly after Hoyle successfully presided over a “boisterous budget day”, the Guardian’s former political editor Michael White profiled the then deputy speaker.

Hoyle’s handling of those proceedings, White wrote, had made him a “parliamentary star in pinstripes”. Here’s how Hoyle saw it:

So once a year it’s my day. I’m in charge and I look forward to it. It’s a highlight, the biggest day of the parliamentary year. The mood in the chamber is electric, you can feel the tension.

Here’s a little more from Hoyle’s moving tribute to his daughter, delivered from the Speaker’s chair in the Commons chamber. He told MPs:

There is one person who’s not here: My daughter, Natalie. I wish she’d have been here, we all miss her as a family; no more so than her mum. I’ve got to say, she was everything to all of us. She will always be missed but she will always be in our thoughts.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said Hoyle would “stand up for the principle” of parliamentary democracy”. He added:

The job of Speaker is not just a ceremonial one. It is about the rights of backbenchers to be able to speak up. It is about the power of parliament to hold the government to account. That is the whole principle and point of a parliamentary democracy; that we have a strong parliament that can hold the executive to account. And I know you will stand up for that principle because that is what you believe in.

Here’s a little more on the comments made by the prime minister after Hoyle took the Speaker’s chair. He said:

Mr Speaker, in congratulating you on your election I observe that you have prevailed over an extremely strong field and that every other candidate earlier on spoke forcibly and well.

Speaking for myself, after long, happy years of dealing with you, I think I know what it is. And let me say, whenever any of us is preparing to speak in this chamber, we all know there is a moment between standing up and when the Speaker calls you when your heart is in your mouth.

And, in that moment of anxiety about whether you’re going to make a fool of yourself and so on and indeed at the moment when we sit down amid deafening silence, the kindliness of the Speaker is absolutely critical to our confidence and the way we behave.

And, Mr Speaker, over the years I have observed that you have many good qualities and I’m sure you will stick up for backbenchers in the way that you have proposed and I’m sure that you will adhere to a strict Newtonian concept of time in PMQs.

But I believe you will also bring your signature kindness, kindness and reasonableness to our proceedings, and thereby to help to bring us together as a Parliament and a democracy.

Because, no matter how fiercely we may disagree, we know that every member comes to this place with the best of motives, determined to solve, to serve the oldest parliamentary democracy in the world.

And, to achieve our goals by the peaceable arts of reason and debate invigilated by an impartial Speaker, which was and remains one of our greatest gifts to the world. Thank you Mr Speaker, and congratulations.

Dame Eleanor Laing, who was eliminated after the third round of voting, has tweeted her congratulations to Hoyle:

And she has been joined in so doing by a host of parliamentary colleagues:

In his speech, Hoyle also paid tribute to Clarke, telling MPs:

I stand by what I said, I stand firm, that I hope this House will be once a great respected House, not just in here but across the world. It’s the envy and we’ve got to make sure that tarnish is polished away, that the respect and tolerance that we expect from everyone who works in here will be shown and we’ll keep that in order.

Boris Johnson rises to thank Clarke and congratulate Hoyle. He says the new Speaker “prevailed over an extremely strong field”. He adds that he believes it was Hoyle’s “signature kindness” towards MPs that led his colleagues to elect him.

Jeremy Corbyn adds his own congratulations to Hoyle and thanks to Clarke, saying the former will need eyes in the back of his head. He jokes about the photograph posted online at the weekend of Hoyle “apparently watching the rugby cup final while, at the same time, not watching the television”.

The image, Corbyn suggests, may be evidence that Hoyle does indeed have the requisite qualification for the job.

Hoyle is dragged to the chair in the traditional way by Caroline Flint and Nigel Evans and begins his remarks by thanking the other candidates. He jokes that there should be no clapping; one of the issues Bryant placed at the heart of his campaign.

And Hoyle pays tribute to his daughter Natalie Lewis-Hoyle, who died in 2017 and whom he says his family misses a great deal.

Hoyle closes by saying he does not want to detain MPs any longer and says the House will change for the better. For the first time, the new Speaker calls the prime minister to the dispatch box.

The Father of the House, Ken Clarke, has returned to the chamber and, it appears, is about to announce the results of the final round of voting in the election of the next Speaker.

Jeremy Corbyn will visit a 10th Tory-held target seat since the general election was called last Tuesday in a deliberate signal that Labour is determined to fight an attacking campaign, despite the anxieties of some of its MPs, my colleague Heather Stewart writes.

In Harlow, in Essex, he will give a speech about Brexit, following visits to a string of other areas, including Putney, Milton Keynes and Crawley. He will head north later in the week, when parliament has been dissolved.

Party strategists claim to have drawn up a list of almost 100 seats that could be within their sights, notwithstanding the Conservatives’ comfortable poll lead.

All three candidates appear to have benefited from the previous round’s eliminations but Bryant saw the greatest increase in support from the second round to the third.

• Chris Bryant: An increase of 49 votes, or about 40%
• Sir Lindsay Hoyle: An increase of 23 votes, or about 9%
• Dame Eleanor Laing: An increase of 5 votes, or about 4%

There were two spoiled votes, Clarke tells the Commons, and 10 fewer MPs cast their ballot in this latest round than in the second.

Bryant is 98 short of Hoyle’s total. So, should a significant proportion of those who voted for Laing stick around and switch to him, Bryant could yet overhaul the favourite.

There is another way of looking at that, of course:

*Please note: I put a set of brackets in the wrong place in the previous post, giving an incorrect figure for Chris Bryant’s latest level of support. I’ve corrected it but you may need to refresh your screen to see the accurate results.

The Guardian has just published its editorial on Labour’s general election campaign, saying Corbyn’s plans are “required to repair the damage caused by a system that is being run in favour of privileged individuals whose market and political power allows them to extract cash from everyone else”.

Labour aims to radically transform Britain; it is a change that is long overdue. The public are quite rightly fed up with the idea that an economic bloodletting is a necessary purgative after the excesses of a boom. Labour recognised this in 2017 and reaped the benefit. Since then, the Tories have sought to claim that they have fixed the economy – and therefore they can go some way to matching Labour’s spending pledges, at least in the election campaign. If ending austerity means ditching self-imposed fiscal targets, Boris Johnson reasons, so be it.

Yet the public is entitled to ask why the state was in so many areas deliberately rolled back, reducing aggregate demand when the economy would have benefited from it.

As we await the results of this round of voting, here’s what Parliament has to say on the office and role of the Speaker:

Speakers must be politically impartial. Therefore, on election the new Speaker must resign from their political party and remain separate from political issues even in retirement. However, the Speaker will deal with their constituents’ problems like a normal MP.

Speakers still stand in general elections. They are generally unopposed by the major political parties, who will not field a candidate in the Speaker’s constituency – this includes the original party they were a member of. During a general election, Speakers do not campaign on any political issues but simply stand as ‘the Speaker seeking re-election’.

A majority of voters think Jo Swinson should be included in the ITV leaders’ debate featuring Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, a YouGov poll suggests.

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over.

Some 575 MPs voted in the second ballot - 13 more than in the first round.

Assuming they all keep voting, that means a candidate needs 288 votes to win.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle is short by 44.

In the Commons the division bells are ringing, which means the results of the next round of voting in the election of the new Speaker will be announced soon.

This morning Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, got the 8.10 slot on the Today programme to discuss Labour figures showing that almost 80,000 operations were cancelled last year.

Ed Conway, Sky’s economics editor, has posted a good thread on Twitter explaining this figure in context. Here are the key points.

More than 400,000 EU citizens living in Britain applied for settled status in the last month, in a huge surge reflecting the threat of a no-deal Brexit.

The number of total applications has now passed 2.2m, up from 1.8m in September, the Home Office has said, with around 17,000 applications per day. The new total represents 64% of the estimated 3.4m EU citizens living in the UK.

The rise in applications in the last four weeks reflects concerns among EU citizens that they would be left in legal limbo if the UK had crashed out of the EU as threatened by Boris Johnson on 31 October.

A spokesman for the Home Office said 1.8m had received either settled status (given to those in the country for five years or more) or pre-settled status (given to those in the country for fewer than five years).

Some 400,000 applications are still being processed.

EU citizens and their family members have until at least 31 December 2020 to apply whatever the outcome of Brexit. If the new prime minister seals a deal that deadline will be extended to June 2021.

Wales is on course for a fundamental transformation in its political landscape with Welsh Labour’s dominance under threat, the first opinion poll of the campaign in the country is suggesting.

The YouGov poll for ITV-Cymru Wales and Cardiff University has the Tories level with Labour in Wales while the Brexit Party is in third place and the Lib Dems have lost ground.

Here are the voting intention figures (with changes on the last poll conducted last month in brackets).

Labour: 29 (+4)

Conservatives: 28 (-1)

Brexit party: 15 (+1)

Liberal Democrats: 12 (-4)

Plaid Cymru: 12 (no change)

Greens: 3 (-1)

Others: 1 (no change)

In a blog Prof Roger Awan-Scully, head of politics and international relations at Cardiff University, cautiously suggests this could lead to Labour losing 10 seats in Wales, and the Conservatives gaining nine.

These are from the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush.

As Bush points out, the election of the Commons Speaker is taking a while because MPs use an exhaustive ballot (successive rounds of voting, as candidates drop out). In the other main internal House of Commons elections, for select committee chairs, they use the alternative vote.

The fact that they are not using first past the post (FPTP), the system used in the UK to elect MPs, might be seen as evidence that FPTP is not ideal and that there are much better voting systems available. But all the MPs who sit in the Commons have managed to get there via FPTP, and the arguments for replacing are rarely heard at the moment. (In fact, in the election campaign so far, the only party making a big issue of electoral reform is the Brexit party.)

Ken Clarke tells MPs that no candidate is dropping out.

He says the new ballot papers will be printed.

Labour’s John Speller complains. He says there was no need to print new ballot papers. MPs could have managed with the original ones, he says. He says they would have known who had dropped out.

Clarke says this is the system they are using.

He suspends proceedings until the new ballot papers are printed.

In the Commons the division bells are ringing. That means the results of the first round of voting in the election of the new Speaker will be announced shortly.

CapX’s Robert Covile has picked up this gem from the BBC’s coverage of the election of the new Speaker.

Pro-remain independent unionist MP Lady Sylvia Hermon will hardly be punching the air with relief over Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald’s endorsement of her in the forthcoming general election. (See 1.29pm.)

North Down is a solidly unionist seat which is unique in being the only pro-union constituency in Northern Ireland that voted to remain in the 2016 EU referendum.

However, many remain unionist voters remain solidly pro another union as well as being Europhile - the one between Northern Ireland and Britain.

The most affluent parliamentary constituency in the region is also home to a large cohort of retired police officers and ex-military who admired Lady Hermon’s late husband, the combative, often highly controversial former Royal Ulster Constabulary Chief Constable Jack Hermon.

One veteran RUC detective whose own family were split down the middle between leave/remain in the Brexit referendum today described Sinn Fein’s backing for Hermon as a potential “kiss of death” for the North Down MP.

Whichever single unionist candidate stands against her in the campaign will use Sinn Fein’s support for her throughout the weeks ahead in their bid to unseat her, he said.

Whether he is right or wrong most long term observers of the Northern Irish political scene would agree that this was one endorsement Lady Hermon could have done without.

I’ve beefed up some of the earlier posts with direct quotes, from the Press Association wires, from the speeches given by the seven candidates for Commons Speaker. To get the updates to appear, you may need to refresh the page.

The UK’s national terrorism threat level has been downgraded from severe to substantial for the first time in five years, the home secretary has said, although this means a terrorist attack is still likely, my colleagues Jamie Grierson and Vikram Dodd report.

My colleague Peter Walker has more from the Brexit party event.

Ken Clarke thanks Harman.

He says he will open the ballot. But first he has to give an explanation of the voting process. It is not clear to MPs. (That is because they are voting by secret ballot, a process only ever used in the Commons for these votes, and for select committee elections.)

He says the ballot will remain open for 20 minutes. Around 45 minutes after the ballot closes, the result will be announced.

He declares the ballot open.

So we have to wait about an hour until we get the results of the first round of voting.

Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, is the final candidate to make her pitch.

She says politics is broken. MPs are facing regular threats. So this election is important.

These are difficult, even dangerous times for our parliamentary democracy. The country’s divided, the house is divided, the public view of this house is at an all-time low.

She says, when she was leader of the Commons, she was fair to all sides.

She says the Speaker’s powers must be transparent.

And she would be fearless in standing up for the Commons.

She says her governing principle would be that all constituents are equal, and that all MPs are equal. She would do her best to ensure that all MPs can do their best.

She has not been a member of a minor party in the Commons, she says. So she says she would appoint a fourth deputy speaker, from one of the smaller parties, so their perspective does not get overlooked.

She says she has pushed for reform, including the introduction of proxy voting only recently.

The Commons was 97% male when she was first elected, she says. She says that has changed enormously. But she says there has only been one female Speaker, Betty Boothroyd (who is watching from the gallery).

So, I’m running for Speaker in these difficult times because I have unparalleled experience and an unparalleled record of reform of this house, but there’s one other reason I want your vote.

Six hundred years, only ever one woman. There have been 156 men, and this is my question to the house today. Can we show the country we have changed by putting the second woman in that Speaker’s chair?

Many MPs are standing down, she says, sometimes only after a short time. That should concern people. She wishes them all well.

Addressing Ken Clarke, she says he has been an exemplary parliamentarian. She wants to thank him.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the senior deputy Speaker, goes next. He is seen as the favourite, and he starts by praising Ken Clarke, but telling him that MPs expect to carry on hearing from him when he stands down.

He says what matters is that MPs can use parliament to hold the government to account.

As deputy Speaker, he has tried to ensure that everyone gets their voice heard. This is not a club where only people who have been here 35 years count.

The person who walked through that door yesterday is just as important to their constituents - their voice must be heard as well - and the pecking order ought not to be there, it is about equality.

He says the Speaker must be trusted. And they must have proven track record. He hopes people will accept that he has that. And he has shown that you can reduce the time taken for Commons matters, he says.

He says security must be improved. But a lot has been done already, he says. He hopes people will credit him for what he has done to ensure that MPs are safe, their families are safe and their staff are safe.

He says the chamber is under-used. There are great ideas for how it could be used more. He will not let MPs down, and he will be accountable.

Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the public accounts committee, is making her case now.

She says she would be a Speaker who spoke less, but who, when she did speak, would be there to speak up for MPs.

She would be an impartial Speaker. UQs and statements are allowed to go on for too long, she says.

I would be an impartial Speaker, a director rather than an actor and we want better time keeping.

She says she used to be mayor of a London borough. She had a casting vote, and had to handle some tricky situations.

She says MPs know her as someone who can be discreet.

I am not a grandstanding politician, I would speak little and as many of you know, I’m incredibly discreet when you come to see me about matters in your constituency. And I would not seek self-publicity but speak up only for MPs and for parliament and our democracy.

She says, on the restoration and renewal project, she was the MP who tabled the amendment saying MPs should move out of the building while the work goes on.

She says bullying and harassment is still too rife in this building.

There are good MPs to work for and bad MPs to work for. Some members of staff are afraid to raise concerns about how they are treated. She says the Commons needs better HR. This must be addressed now, she says.

I’d step up the approach to personal security and online bullying which is leading to too many colleagues leaving this place because it’s intolerable. But the main thrust of why I’m standing is the bullying and harassment that is still too rife in this building.

Dame Eleanor Laing, another deputy Speaker, goes next.

She thanks Ken Clarke for his service to the Commons.

She says the Commons is full of good people.

She is very sad that so many MPs have decided to leave. It is time someone had the courage to defend MPs, not just in his house but outside as well, she says. She says that is what she would do as Speaker.

Defending members of parliament, that’s what I would do if the House makes me Speaker. Because failing to stand up for the honourable men and women who come to this place to their public duty harms not only the individual MP but weakens parliament in the eyes of the nation.

There is a real anxiety about the health to the democratic system, she says. She says there is a need to rebuild trust in the political system. This is a time for change, she says, and she would deliver change.

There are times for continuity and there are times for change. This is the time for change. I want to be that change. This the 21st century for goodness sake, we need to escape from the overbearing and hierarchal structures that have made it all too easy for a culture of bullying to take route.

She says there must be an end to bullying in the Commons. She has always discharged her duties with kindness, she says.

She says the Speaker must support the welfare of MPs.

And she says the Speaker should not say any more than needs to be said. And the Speaker should not be taking up the time that should be there for MPs.

Can I just say that it’s not the role of the Speaker to say any more than needs to be said.

Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative, is speaking now.

He says he would want to encourage backbenchers who are sincere in their beliefs.

He says he thinks the Speaker should submerge his personality into the job. He should be a servant of the house, he says. He says Winterton and Bryant were proposing the same idea in their speeches.

I think the Speaker should submerge his or her character in the job. The Speaker should be the servant of the house, the Speaker should be a dignified and quiet voice.

MPs should be proud of what the Commons has achieved in the last three years, he says. Every point of view has been aired, he says.

They should recreate the great debates in this place, he says. Everyone should get a fair crack of the whip, he says.

I believe that we can make this place even better - I believe that it’s no accident that the great speeches in history in our place were precisely that, speeches.

They were not interminable self-regarding points of intervention or points of order or statements going on forever.

I believe that we should recreate the great debates in this place and allow adequate time and be fair to everybody, so that everybody gets a fair crack of the whip, literally to put their point of view.

He says it is also important for MPs to maintain the building properly. He says the restoration can be down cheaply and efficiently. He says he does not support the need for Richmond House to be gutted to home a replacement chamber.

He urges MPs to hold the executive to account, and to be sincere in their beliefs.

The Labour MP Chris Bryant goes next.

He says he loves parliament. He says much good work goes on here that is not appreciated. MPs work together on campaigns that make a real difference, he says.

He says he wants to restore the rulebook. It is important for the Speaker to know it backwards, he says. He says he sleeps with Erskine May at his bedside.

I’m standing because I love parliament, I believe in parliamentary democracy and I want to do things properly - that means being a Speaker who has absolutely no favourites, a Speaker who believes in standing by the rules, somebody who is completely impartial, who knows Erskine May inside out, back to front, I’ve got it lying by my bedside.

He says he wants to get PMQs back to 30 minutes.

He would publish lists of speakers for debates, so that MPs know when they will be called, he says.

He says he wants to stop clapping in the chamber.

He ends by saying he just wants the chance to serve.

Dame Rosie Winterton, a deputy speaker, goes first.

She says she has been a chief whip (for Labour) and a deputy Speaker.

Restoring public confidence in parliament is all our responsibility, but the Speaker sets the tone. My view is the Speaker’s job is not to dominate proceedings or speak for parliament but to facilitate debate and allow parliament to speak for itself with all its different voices and all its diverse voices.

She says in every job she has done she has been conciliatory.

She says, as a Speaker from the north, she would show the House of Commons is open to all. And she says the last Speaker from the north (Betty Boothroyd) did a good job.

As Speaker I would douse the flames not pour petrol on them. A stabilising, unifying Speaker, a Speaker from the north so the public see parliament is about the whole country and not just London.

She says she does not like to see speakers at the end of debates being given just three minutes to finish speeches. She says urgent questions and PMQs should not be allowed to over-run.

(That marks a contrast with John Bercow, who regularly let UQs and PMQs run until everyone down to ask a question had had a go.)

She says he father was a headteacher. He was not seen as a disciplinarian. He was seen as “fair, encouraging and trusted”, she says. She says she would like to be the same as Speaker. She would “not seek the limelight”, but build trust.

Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, has been speaking at at Westminster event where he is unveiling Brexit party election candidates. He says his party will not be standing aside for the Tories.

The number of deaths in Northern Ireland linked to paramilitary activity has increased year on year, a new report has found.

The Independent Reporting Commission, which was set up to monitor progress on the peace process in the region, also says that Brexit could fuel further violence.

“The real issue about the dangers for peace in Northern Ireland, therefore, is not that Brexit itself could be the direct cause of a renewal of violence, but rather that it has the potential to add fuel to the fire of continued paramilitarism,” it said in its second annual report.

It said that while the level of paramilitary violence over the last 10 years had reduced, it was “disturbing” to see three paramilitary-linked deaths in the year to 20 September including the murder of journalist Lyra McKee.

It found that loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for more assaults and republican paramilitaries were involved in more shootings.

There are 88 organised crime groups in Northern Ireland, 22 of which have paramilitary links, it says.

Jack Irvine, the veteran public relations specialist who has been taken on by the Brexit party for the election (see 12.25pm), has said he agrees with its criticisms of Boris Johnson’s deal “100%”. In a brief email exchange following news of his appointment, Irvine said the party had hired him on a Media House contract “but I will be working seven days a week” for it.

Asked whether he endorsed its policies, he said:

I agree with the Brexit party 100% especially on issues of sovereignty, fishing rights and regaining legal independence. I also believe that Boris has failed to deliver a genuine Brexit and am appalled at the treatment of our Northern Irish friends and relations.

From my colleague Jennifer Rankin

Loathing of Brexit united remainers and finally broke Northern Ireland’s binary nationalist v unionist divide. Well, so it seemed for a few heady days.

Last week Steve Aiken, the incoming leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), upended convention by ruling out an electoral pact with the Democratic Unionist party (DUP). As an opponent of Brexit Aiken said he felt duty-bound to run candidates in all 18 constituencies to give pro-remain unionists an alternative to the DUP.

Even in north Belfast, he said. Meaning Aiken was willing to split the unionist vote and give Sinn Féin’s John Finucane a better chance of taking the seat from the DUP’s deputy leader, Nigel Dodds.

An audacious move that prompted swift backlash. Unionists inside and outside the UUP protested. Suspected loyalist paramilitaries threatened retaliation against the UUP.

At the weekend Aiken caved and said his party would skip north Belfast, giving Dodds, the DUP’s Brexit policy architect, a clear run at sweeping up unionists, be they leavers or remainers.

The DUP, in turn, will give the UUP a clear run in the marginal seat of Fermanagh and south Tyrone.

The moderate nationalist SDLP then announced it too would stand aside in north Belfast to boost Finucane’s chances. (See 12pm.) The stated reason is to let remain voters rally around a single candidate, even one who would abstain from Westminster. The other reason is to pressure Sinn Féin to stand aside in south Belfast and boost the SDLP’s chance of nabbing the seat from the DUP.

Unionism and nationalism, remain and leave, all simmering together in a Northern Irish stew.

The Brexit party has appointed a Scottish public relations specialist and former tabloid editor, Jack Irvine, as its head of campaign communications for the general election campaign.

The launch editor of the Scottish edition of the Sun in 1987, Irvine describes himself as an expert in crisis management and public affairs, telling one interviewer with the trade magazine PR Week: “People come to me because I’m combative and aggressive.”

Irvine set up the Glasgow-based PR firm MediaHouse in 1991, after management jobs for Mirror Group, owners of the Daily Record, and News International.

Its clients in Scotland include Scottish Land & Estates, the landowners group, grouse moor owners, the Bank of Scotland, the football club Rangers FC and Sir Brian Souter, the co-founder of the Stagecoach transport company during Souter’s unsuccessful campaign to retain regulations which banned “promotion” of gay rights in schools.

His firm has expanded overseas, with Irvine campaigning in the US on an alleged fraud case involving Medicare and a medical laboratory, but he has also acted for Caribbean tax havens, including the government of the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos.

Irvine has been approached for a comment on his new role. It is unclear whether he has taken the job on in a personal or professional capacity.

His MediaHouse profile page reports:

Irvine has carved out a niche in crisis management and public affairs and in that role deals almost exclusively with chairmen and chief executives both in Europe and the USA. The past decade has seen an increasing advisory role for Irvine with political leaders in international financial centres.

And here is another question from BTL.

When will we get the final result of the election for the new Speaker?

PedroCordeiro

04 November 2019 10:34am

Andrew, at what time can we expect a new speaker to be dragged to the chiar?

My colleague Peter Walker has got an overall guide to the process here.

There are now seven candidates. The election starts at 2.30pm and all the candidates will get the chance to deliver a short speech before MPs vote in a secret ballot. Commons officials says it could take up to an hour to count the papers, and so we should get the first set of results at around 4.30pm.

MPs use an exhaustive ballot and, after the first round of voting, the candidate with the fewest votes drops out and MPs keep voting until someone gets more than 50% of votes cast. This means in theory there could be up to five rounds of voting. But any candidate with less than 5% of votes cast also drops out, and in practice candidates who realise they are not going to win also tend to quit voluntarily. In 2009, when MPs last elected a Speaker, there were 10 candidates but only three rounds of voting. It would be surprising if it goes beyond that this time, and so the final result should come by around 6.30pm. But it could be nearer 5.30pm if the second round of voting settles the matter.

Here is Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s lead Brexit spokesman, on Nigel Farage’s decision not to stand for Westminster. Farage, of course, remains an MEP.

If remainers are looking for reasons to vote Labour, Lib Dem or SNP, the Tories have got a helpful clock at CCHQ that will give them one. This is from the Tory MP Harriett Baldwin.

Price says Plaid Cymru is Wales’s leading remain party. It wants to lead Wales to remain, and then lead it into becoming an independent member of the European Union in its own right.

Price says Scotland’s needs have shot to the top of the political agenda because of devolution and the strength of the SNP.

The biggest legacy for Wales has been what has been cancelled: a power station, and rail electrification.

He says Wales has some of the best renewable energy resources. But it does not even feature in Labour’s clean energy plans.

Plaid Cymru is launching its general election campaign. There is a live feed here.

Here is a question from a reader BTL (below the line).

Could the UK leave the EU before 31 January?

Discostug

04 November 2019 9:55am

Andrew / @AndrewSparrow

The next possible no deal departure date is 31/01/20. Is it possible that we could leave earlier in a no deal scenario depending on the election results or does the extension protect the UK from no deal until 31/01/20?

Thanks

In theory, yes. Here is an extract from the official EU statement (pdf) agreeing the extension. If parliament were to pass the Brexit deal in time, the UK could leave the EU on 1 January. It says:

The European council recalls that, under article 50(3) TEU, the withdrawal agreement may enter into force on an earlier date, should the parties complete their respective ratification procedures before the end of the period under article 50(3) TEU. Consequently, the withdrawal should take place on the first day of the month following the completion of the ratification procedures or on 1 February 2020, whichever is the earliest.

In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, Boris Johnson suggested that, in the event of the Tories winning the election, Brexit could happen by Christmas. The story started:

Boris Johnson has revealed his “fast and furious” plan to get Brexit wrapped up by Christmas if he wins a decisive general election victory on December 12.

But the actual quote from Johnson was a bit less specific. He told the paper:

We’ve got a deal that’s ready to go and if we can get it right with a new parliament we will move quickly.

Our new MPs will come back the following day and we will bang it through. We’ll get Brexit done very, very fast and avoid another infinite period of dither and delay.

And, in practice, Johnson’s “Brexit by Christmas” pledge will probably turn out to be as reliable as his “do or die” one to deliver Brexit by 31 October because it is very hard to imagine the Brexit agreement being passed before Christmas.

MPs will not be able to return to the Commons “the following day” after the election because the counting will not finish in some constituencies until late Friday. Then, when MPs do return to the Commons at the start of a new parliament, it normally takes a few days for them all to take the oath before any legislating can actually start. And even if Johnson were able to ram the withdrawal agreement bill through parliament before Christmas, the European parliament would also have to vote to rubber-stamp it for the UK to be able to leave on 1 January.

UPDATE: Sorry. I got sidetracked, and overlooked the point about a no-deal Brexit. No deal is now off the table until 31 January. The extension agreement means that, under international law, the UK is now a member of the EU until the end of January, unless a deal is agreed by the end of December, and UK law has also been amended to reflect this.

And here is Jennifer’s full story about Jean-Claude Juncker criticising Boris Johnson for telling “so many lies” during the 2016 referendum campaign.

As my colleagues Simon Murphy and Liz Perkins report here, Francesca O’Brien is being urged to stand down as the Conservative candidate in Gower after it emerged that five years ago she wrote a post on Facebook saying people on the reality TV show Benefits Street needed “putting down”. Gower, a Labour-held marginal, is one of the Tories’ key targets in Wales.

In her Today interview Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, refused to back calls for O’Brien to be removed as a candidate. Coffey said that O’Brien’s comment was “clearly wrong”, but that she had apologised and that it should be up to the people of the Gower to decide if they wanted her as an MP.

Ian Lavery, the Labour party chair, said Coffey should have disowned her candidate. In a statement he said:

Removing a candidate who used such vile language about people on benefits should be a no brainer.

The cuts to benefits and universal credit programme that Thérèse Coffey and her party are responsible for have forced people into poverty.

It is shameful that Boris Johnson is allowing Francesca O’Brien to stand for his party in Gower. This reveals the Conservatives’ contempt for the less well off.