Newly-elected MPs have begun being sworn into Parliament for the first time as Sir Lindsay Hoyle is re-elected as the Speaker of the House of Commons.
The MP for Chorley, in Lancashire, was returned unopposed as the new Parliament met for the first time after the election, and told MPs he would be “fair, impartial and independent”.
Sir Lindsay, who was ceremonially ‘dragged’ back to the chair, has served as Speaker since November 2019 when he replaced John Bercow shortly before that year’s general election.
It came as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Rishi Sunak spoke in the Commons before the 335 new MPs took the oath for the first time.
Starmer vowed to “put an end to a politics that has too often seemed self-serving and self-obsessed and to replace that politics of performance with the politics of service”.
He added: “We all have a duty to show that politics can be a force for good.”
Making his first speech as opposition leader, Sunak congratulated Starmer “on his election victory” and said: “As he takes on his formidable task, he and his family deserve the good wishes of all of us in this House.
“We are all motivated by our desire to serve our constituents, our country, and advance the principles that we honourably believe in.”
Leaders of smaller parties – including Sir Ed Davey for the Liberal Democrats, Stephen Flynn for the Scottish National Party (SNP), and Reform UK’s Nigel Farage – also spoke to welcome the Speaker and mark the opening of Parliament.
It came after Starmer met with the UK’s 12 metro mayors, including Ben Houchen, for the Tees Valley, the only remaining Tory mayor, in No10 – before heading to Washington to attend NATO.
The Prime Minister will meet with US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the key international summit this week.