Chaos in the Commons benefits the SNP

Wednesday’s chaotic procedures in the House of Commons have handed an enormous soapbox to the SNP’s Stephen Flynn. The MP for Aberdeen South, who has led the Scottish National Party’s Westminster group since December 2022, has been intoning gravely that the debate ‘descended into farce’ and, with suppressed fury, told the speaker that he no longer trusted him to preside impartially over the House. Flynn has tabled an early-day motion which, at time of writing, had 66 signatories, and expresses ‘no confidence in Mr Speaker’.

Flynn has cause to be upset. His is the third-largest party in the House, with 43 MPs. Moreover, the debate on Gaza was a day on which, rarely, the SNP had chosen the subject under discussion. Yet, for a time, it seemed as if there might not be an opportunity for him and his colleagues to vote on their motion after only a government and possibly a Labour amendment to the wording were selected by the Speaker.