Charles Walker: I have been played for a fool

The Commons has gone beyond uproar on the vote on the secret ballot to re-elect the speaker. There has been clapping, a standing ovation, and tears. Charles Walker, chair of the Procedure Committee, told MPs that he had been ‘played for a fool by the whips and the party leadership who had had meetings with him or bumped into him in Parliament without mentioning that they intended to debate his report today, or indeed to use it as a means of introducing a secret ballot on the re-election of the Speaker’. He was visibly emotional as he spoke.