House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said that no evidence of bullying was found, following allegations of Tory MPs being “manhandled” as they entered the lobbies to vote on fracking on October 19.
Sir Lindsay (pictured) said that an internal investigation had deemed there to be no evidence of “undue influence” in proceedings, in what was a “tense” atmosphere.
The speaker confirmed that the full report into the chaos around the voting lobbies on the night will be published in due course.
The incident came on October 19, the day before Liz Truss stepped down as prime minister.
Opposition MPs claimed that senior Tories bullied and manhandled their Conservative colleagues in forcing them to back the government in the vote, which Labour took to the Commons in a bid to ensure that government plans to lift the fracking ban at the time would require MPs’ consent.
Sir Lindsay said: “The atmosphere was tense and members were raising their voices to make themselves heard, but there is no evidence of any bullying or undue influence placed on other members.
“The crowding made it hard to see what was really taking place. While some members thought that physical contact was being used to force a member into the lobby, the member concerned has said very clearly that this did not happen.”
Alexander Stafford – a Conservative MP – denied claims by Labour MP Chris Bryant that he’d been “physically manhandled” by a colleague.
Stafford said that he’d had a “frank and robust” conversation with government ministers outside the voting lobbies but maintained that “nothing more” than that had happened.
Since the incident, Rishi Sunak has replaced Liz Truss as prime minister and reinstated the fracking ban.
