As 23 Conservatives voted against the Government’s proposal to have secret ballots on the Speaker, by my count only four MPs from other parties voted in favour of it. Interestingly, they were all Lib Dems, despite William Hague’s comments during the debate that Labour MPs had requested the motion be brought, too. Perhaps they bottled it or couldn’t resist the temptation of inflicting a final day defeat on the Government.
The four Lib Dems are:
Tom Brake
Ed Davey
Don Foster
John Thurso