1. Sir Lindsay Harvey Hoyle was born on 10 June 1957 and is a British politician who has served as Speaker of the House of Commons since 2019 and as Member of Parliament for Chorley since 1997.
37 Facts About Lindsay Hoyle
1. 2.
Lindsay Hoyle was unanimously re-elected as Speaker after both the 2019 general election and the 2024 general election.
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Lindsay Hoyle was born on 10 June 1957 in Adlington, the son of the future Labour MP Doug Hoyle and Pauline Spencer.
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Lindsay Hoyle went to Adlington County School and Lord's College in Bolton.
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Lindsay Hoyle was re-elected four times, and served as Deputy Leader from 1994 to 1997.
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Lindsay Hoyle served as a member of the Trade and Industry Committee from 1998 to 2010 and as a member of the European Scrutiny Committee from 2005 to 2010.
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Lindsay Hoyle was previously the Honorary President of the All-Party British Gibraltar Group in Parliament and a Vice Chair of the All-Party British Virgin Islands Group.
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Lindsay Hoyle clashed with then Prime Minister Tony Blair over issues such as Gibraltar and tuition fees.
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Lindsay Hoyle is one of the few MPs who have not revealed whether they voted Leave or Remain in the 2016 referendum.
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Lindsay Hoyle was elected Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons and Chairman of Ways and Means on 8 June 2010, the first time this appointment had been made by ballot of MPs, rather than by nomination of the Leader of the House.
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Lindsay Hoyle was appointed to the Privy Council in January 2013.
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On 20 March 2013, Lindsay Hoyle won wide public acclaim for his handling of the Budget proceedings, which were frequently interrupted by jeering MPs.
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In February 2017, Lindsay Hoyle scolded SNP MPs for singing the European Anthem during the vote for the Brexit bill in the House of Commons, stating that he did not want parliament to turn into a sing-off.
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Lindsay Hoyle was in the Speaker's Chair during the terrorist attack in Westminster on 22 March 2017, and the subsequent suspension and lockdown of the Commons.
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Lindsay Hoyle was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for parliamentary and political services.
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On 4 November 2019, Lindsay Hoyle entered the election for Speaker to replace John Bercow.
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Lindsay Hoyle was elected Speaker on the fourth ballot, defeating Chris Bryant and winning 325 votes out of a total of 540 cast.
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On 16 October 2021, Lindsay Hoyle accompanied Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer and Priti Patel in laying wreaths at the church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex where MP David Amess was murdered the day before.
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In September 2022, Lindsay Hoyle described the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II as "the most important event the world will ever see".
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In December 2022, Lindsay Hoyle voiced opposition to his former party's plan of replacing the House of Lords with an elected upper chamber.
21.
On 9 May 2023, Lindsay Hoyle unveiled two new stained glass windows in the Speaker's House, at the Palace of Westminster.
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Lindsay Hoyle said at the unveiling the windows were and "will forever be tangible reminders of the strong, close links between the United Kingdom, the overseas territories and the crown dependencies".
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Lindsay Hoyle was accused of breaking long-standing convention rules of the House and ignoring his own clerk's legal advice by allowing a vote on each of the amendments from the Government and the Official Opposition.
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Lindsay Hoyle later offered his regret and gave his apologies to the House and stated his intention to meet party leaders and whips, "to discuss the way forward".
25.
On 13 March 2024, Diane Abbott sitting as an Independent MP, criticised Lindsay Hoyle for denying her the opportunity to ask a question during Prime Minister's Questions, when she was referred to by Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer in relation to Frank Hester's alleged racist comments made about her in 2019.
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Lindsay Hoyle has been married twice and has had two daughters.
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Lindsay Hoyle was married from 1974 to Lynda Anne Fowler; they divorced in 1982.
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In June 1993, Lindsay Hoyle married Catherine Swindley, who succeeded him as the Labour Councillor for Adlington in May 1998.
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Lindsay Hoyle has employed his wife as his part-time constituency secretary.
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Lindsay Hoyle and Conservative Maldon District Councillor Miriam Lewis had a daughter, Natalie Lewis-Lindsay Hoyle, a Conservative parish councillor who was found hanged in her bedroom, in December 2017, at the age of 28.
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Lindsay Hoyle currently serves as president of the Rugby Football League.
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Lindsay Hoyle has described himself as an animal lover and has a number of pets, which he has named after notable figures in British political history.
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Lindsay Hoyle operates an Instagram page for Attlee, where he regularly shares pictures of the cat in the House of Commons.
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On 15 February 2024 Lindsay Hoyle presented a Guinness World Record certificate to the 192-year-old giant tortoise Jonathan, the world's oldest living land animal, during a visit to the island of St Helena.
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Lindsay Hoyle gained the style of The Right Honourable when sworn into the Privy Council on 12 February 2013.
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Lindsay Hoyle was appointed as the Chancellor of the University of Gibraltar in 2020.
37.
In January 2025 Lindsay Hoyle made a guest appearance, in a cameo role as a Lancastrian rambler, in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale, to celebrate its 10,000th edition.