Sharon Hodgson’s Betty Boothroyd-Inspired Deputy Speaker Bid
7 min read
“Experienced, passionate, fair” – that’s the pitch Sharon Hodgson is making to her colleagues in the upcoming deputy speaker election.
The MP for Washington and Gateshead South has been in the Commons for 19 years, and served in government as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to three cabinet ministers, then as a whip. She was Keir Starmer’s PPS for two years until she decided she wanted training for the deputy speaker post.
“I had this Damascus Road experience when I was sitting in the Chamber for Betty Boothroyd’s tributes,” Hodgson says. “Sitting there, remembering Betty, just thinking: I might never – probably will never – get the chance to go for Speaker [because the role will go to the Conservatives next time]… That’s fine because deputy speaker is still amazing.”
She spoke to Starmer and chief whip Alan Campbell about it, then set her “apprenticeship” in motion with appointments to the Finance Committee, House of Commons Commission and R&R client board.
“Gosh, they do a lot more than just sit in the chair, deputising for the Speaker. They have a whole role in the management and running and leadership of the House,” she realised. “When you get behind the scenes, and you see all the people who are running the show for us, that's great.”
Citing her love of chairing big meetings (she is thinking of a select committee chair run if this does not work out), Hodgson also promises to offer a “confidential ear” – particularly to new MPs, as she remembers not having someone as approachable as her in a powerful position when she first arrived in 2005.
I had this Damascus Road experience
She lists those in charge then: Hilary (now Baroness) Armstrong as chief whip, Michael Martin as speaker, Alan Haselhurst and Michael Lord as deputy speakers. “Everyone was scary! The whips were scary, the speakers were all scary… You should feel like you can go and ask someone in authority.”
Hodgson appreciates how much the Chamber has changed in recent years. “I sat for nine hours before I was called for my maiden speech. That was normal: you had to be in at the start, and you stayed. I was frightened even to ask to go to the toilet,” she remembers.
There are increased concerns over MPs’ security, however. Does she believe it is good enough? The MP praises Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s work in this area. “I think people do feel a lot safer. But I still think there may be a reticence for members to come forward with some of their pastoral needs.” She found that MPs approached her on that basis when she was Starmer’s PPS – not only looking for access but sometimes just a friendly face.
Earlier in the year, Hoyle came under immense pressure after he broke with precedent to enable voting on a Labour amendment on Gaza, which infuriated other parties, especially the SNP. With the Speaker citing threats to MP safety as a reason for including alternative wordings on a ceasefire, the incident prompted a debate over whether the prospect of violence and intimidation outside Parliament should be considered when deciding which motions to select in the Commons.
“It's really hard not to be aware of what's happening outside, especially when it comes to the security of Members and the death threats. I had graffiti three times on my office wall and I had an effigy of a dead body left with Palestinian flags and tulips scattered outside my office,” Hodgson says, adding that colleagues had “far, far worse”.
“I feel that within the House, all sides should have been more understanding about that, and about how difficult that decision was,” she continues. “Whether or not he was right or wrong to do that – I know he apologised, he explained why he did that – I had huge sympathy with why he did it, because I thought it felt the right thing to do [at the time].”
Another bone of contention is breastfeeding in the Chamber. Would she allow it?
“I'm evangelical about breastfeeding,” the MP replies. “You should be able to breastfeed anywhere that you would be able to bottle-feed a baby.” But she questions whether it is right for babies to be in the Chamber. “I don’t want the wrath of all the mums down on me,” she says, before concluding that “it probably isn't”. She believes breastfeeding should be permitted anywhere else on the estate, however.
I’m in favour of citizens’ assemblies, I think they’re a great idea
And what does she make of the call by two outgoing deputy speakers that phones should be banned from the Chamber? “I wouldn't be up for that,” Hodgson replies. “We don't want to go back to passing pieces of paper.” She recognises that the public can get a poor impression from mobile use on the green benches, however.
“At first, I remember me mam saying, ‘You're all sitting playing on your phone’. I'd go, ‘I'm not playing on my phone, mam!’ ‘What are you on, Candy Crush? That would be the one – I've heard about people sitting and going on that.’ ‘I'm not, I'm working!’”
Unconcerned by arguments that citizens’ assemblies would undermine the Commons, Hodgson is enthusiastic about them: “I’m in favour of citizens’ assemblies, I think they’re a great idea.” Perhaps she would like to chair one? “Absolutely!”
On the R&R options, she is undecided. “I've changed my mind so many times. The cost is huge.” She criticises the decision to shorten summer recess, as she reckons those 11-week stretches could have been useful for getting work done to the estate.
“Around the expenses scandal, there was lots of anger about the long summer recess,” she recalls, explaining that this led to MPs starting to return for briefly to Parliament before conference season begins. This was “giving into public opinion” and it would have been better to explain to constituents that recess does not mean time off for MPs, she argues. “We're not on holiday, people!”
Hodgson has been an effective campaigner for various causes. How would she feel about having to stay quiet on those topics, as required of a deputy speaker? The potential for frustration has occurred to her.
If there were a debate on universal free school meals, an initiative she has championed, she says: “I would literally be having to bite my tongue and sit on my hand. Probably – not from the chair – but probably the day before I might be texting people going 'remember to raise this point, remember to raise that point'!”
Here, she quotes advice that could be useful for the large 2024 intake. When she was fretting as a new MP about not being able to cover everything that took her interest, the late Sir Stuart Bell, Labour MP for Middlesborough until 2012, told her: “All those issues are like a flock of birds in the sky, all doves flying around. All you have to do is jump up and grab two and you take them as far as you can.
“You make them your issue – ask questions, do speeches, do everything they can on those issues – in the sure and certain knowledge that the 649 other MPs have all jumped up and grabbed two different ones, so all of those issues have been dealt with by someone. Then, when you’re happy with what you've done, let one go and pick another one.”
While Hodgson may now be a veteran MP, there is still something her colleagues may not know about her: she can twirl a mace. Could we see her perform that skill in the Chamber?
“I’ve still got a mace. Not as ornate, obviously, as the one we’ve got in the Chamber, and I would never dare pick that up and try to twirl it.” The ceremonial mace in the Commons is the wrong shape, anyway, she points out.
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