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LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer has dodged a Commons probe over last month’s chaotic Gaza ceasefire debate.
Tory, SNP and Plaid Cymru MPs had requested an investigation, alleging that Sir Keir had put pressure on Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to select his party’s amendment during the SNP opposition day debate.
But all three deputy speakers, Rosie Winterton, Nigel Evans and Eleanor Laing, have now unanimously ruled that there will be no vote on whether to refer the Labour leader to the Commons privileges committee.
In a joint letter, they said: “The Speaker’s role requires his conversations with members to remain confidential. All parties should be able to rely on that confidentiality.
“Allowing matters of privilege to be raised on the content of confidential conversations would undermine that principle.”
The letter, addressed to SNP chief whip Owen Thompson, the Conservatives’ Graham Brady and Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville-Roberts, adds that there is a “high bar” for raising allegations of breach of privilege.
“We have decided not to give this matter precedence,” it says. “Our decision is unanimous.”
