Downing Street has announced that David Cameron has asked the Queen to summon the new parliament to meet on Monday 18 May. That suggests he expects a new government to be in place by then, 11 days after polling day. The state opening of parliament, and the Queen’s Speech, has been set for Wednesday 27 May.
The Liberal Democrats are facing a police investigation over allegations that they received donations in breach of party funding rules. As the Press Association reports, the Electoral Commission said that it had passed details of the alleged breaches to the Metropolitan Police as they were potentially a “criminal matter”. The allegations relate to recent reports by The Daily Telegraph and the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. A Lib Dem spokesman said: “When the party was notified of the allegations, we immediately referred them to the Electoral Commission and have fully complied with their inquiries. We will continue to cooperate with any investigation.”
But, at the lobby briefing, Cameron’s spokeswoman refused to say whether Cameron thought John Bercow was going a good job. “That’s a view for MPs across the House to express,” she said.
Asked if Cameron was disappointed by the result, the spokeswoman said: “It was for the House to decide, and they have expressed their view.”
My colleague Henry McDonald is following the election campaign in Northern Ireland. One MP is making an issue of football.
Embattled Alliance Party MP Naomi Long is speaking up today for one of the major institutions in her East Belfast constituency - Glentoran Football Club. And in her sights is the online vendor Ticketmaster as villain of the piece. Tickets for the Irish Cup Final between Glentoran and Portadown next month can only be bought through Ticketmaster and Long fears this could lead to trouble at the big game.
“Unfortunately, and despite sterling work carried out by the club, we have seen past violence at this particular fixture. My fear is that with Ticketmaster selling Final tickets, a number of people who aren’t fans may travel to the game for the express purpose of seeking disorder and the current set-up would only help them achieve that,” the Alliance’s sole MP warms.
Long launches her own campaign for re-election this Monday in East Belfast where she is under pressure from the Democratic Unionist Party’s Gavin Robinson - no relation we might add to First Minister Peter Robinson.
Hague says Andrew Lansley has been an “intellectual powerhouse”.
And Hague says he regards passing the Disablity Act in 1995, when he was a welfare minister, as his most important legislative achievement.
He says he believes most MPs, in all parties, are sincere and hard-working. The reputation of parliament can be restored by the display of that.
Having watched the Youth Parliament, he is encouraged by the prospects for the future, he says.
Meeting young people is often the most encouraging part of the job of an MP, he says.
And that’s it. Sir George Young, the former leader of the Commons, is wrapping up now. He initiated the debate and he says he thinks the innovation of having a debate that allows leaving MPs to say goodbye has been a good one. He hopes the idea will be repeated.
William Hague starts by thanking Gordon Brown for his speech, and his service to the country as prime minister.
Hague says he believes that women having more power will be one of the great achievements of the 21st century.
He is paying tribute to the MPs who have spoken in this afternoon’s farewell debate. They include Jack Straw. Hague says recent controversies about Straw will not overshadow the full contributions he has made.
He thinks Tessa Jowell for helping to stage the best ever Olympics in the world.
Angela Eagle, as shadow leader of the house, is speaking in the Commons, noting that unlike most of the recent people speaking she does hope to be back. Overall, she has totted up in a notebook, the retiring MPs have put together 677 years of service in the Commons. “Obviously not in a linear way,” she adds, in case anyone was confused.
Among the great details are that after being arrested for alleged assault during the 1984 miners’ strike a jury took just 25 minutes to acquit him. It later emerged the jurors had spent 15 of these electing a chairman.
Among the still ongoing series of valedictory speeches is one by Eric Joyce, officially an independent. The MP for Falkirk resigned from Labour in 2012 in the wake of admitting charges of assault connected to a drunken incident in a Commons bar, in which a Conservative MP was headbutted. Not unexpectedly, Joyce is not seeking re-election.
Eric Joyce speaks to the Commons. Photograph: BBC Parliament
PA has helpfully supplied the names of the Conservative and Lib Dem MPs who voted against the anti-Bercow motion, as I think we can accurately shorten it. They aren’t strictly rebels, as it was a free vote. But it’s fair to say they’re not currently much loved by the government whips.
The 23 Conservative MPs:
David Amess (Southend West), Bob Blackman (Harrow East), Peter Bone (Wellingborough), Graham Brady (Altrincham & Sale West), Conor Burns (Bournemouth West), Christopher Chope (Christchurch), Tracey Crouch (Chatham & Aylesford), Philip Davies (Shipley), David Davis (Haltemprice & Howden), Cheryl Gillan (Chesham & Amersham), Zac Goldsmith (Richmond Park), James Gray (Wiltshire North), Adam Holloway (Gravesham), Bernard Jenkin (Harwich & Essex North), Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford), Edward Leigh (Gainsborough), Julian Lewis (New Forest East), Jack Lopresti (Filton & Bradley Stoke), David Nuttall (Bury North), Jacob Rees-Mogg (Somerset North East), Sir Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills), Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) and Charles Walker (Broxbourne).
The 10 Liberal Democrat MPs:
Malcolm Bruce (Gordon), Lorely Burt (Solihull), Duncan Hames (Chippenham), David Heath (Somerton & Frome), Martin Horwood (Cheltenham), Dan Rogerson (Cornwall North), Bob Russell (Colchester), Jo Swinson (Dunbartonshire East), Stephen Williams (Bristol West) and Simon Wright (Norwich South).
Labour have had their say on the vote about rules to elect the Speaker, and you’d expect there’s a touch of gloating involved. They come from Angela Eagle, shadow leader of the house:
Angela Eagle.
This is a humiliating defeat for David Cameron on the last day of this parliament. Instead of talking about ways to improve the lives of working people, in the last week all the prime minister has done is play petty partisan games and arrogantly talk about his retirement plans. In today’s vote decency and democracy prevailed.
The Electoral Commission has therefore passed the information that it has received to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The MPS have confirmed to the commission that they are also aware of the allegations and that they are considering them.
Further allegations by the Channel 4 programme Dispatches programme on 23 March seemed to be an alleged breach of the same law, and had also been passed to police, it added.
Lynton Crosby, the Tories’ election guru, was briefing MPs earlier today, the reason so many of them were about. My colleague Rajeev Syal has this on what he told them.
And yes, be warned – this will apparently be “the selfie election”:
Conservative Party officials believe that they need to win over just 11,223 voters in 69 seats to win the general election.
A senior Tory source, speaking on Thursday morning after a final pre-election meeting of the party’s MPs with the election guru Lynton Crosby, said that the race to win is so tight that victory will be fought over a small number of voters in key seats.
“We are going to be fighting a localised campaign, more so than ever before. We will be targeting voters with social media, direct mail, and a digital campaign, as well as on the doorstep.
“But we know that this election is about winning over 11,223 voters in 69 seats… We have that opportunity. Labour’s task, given the collapse of their vote in Scotland and the squeeze from the Greens and Ukip, is absolutely impossible,” the source said.
The meeting, which took place in the large Betty Boothroyd Room in Portcullis House, was essentially a technical meeting, the source said.
Conservative MPs, including cabinet members, were told they will receive daily e-mails from the Party’s headquarters, and will receive notifications on the five “issues of the day”, the source said.
These are not “lines to take”, he insisted, but briefings.
However, the source, who was authorised by the Party to speak to the media after the meeting, said that the campaign would be fought as local campaigns.
“We are fighting each seat, including all seats in Northern Ireland for the first time, and each seat will be fought locally,” he said.
He also agreed that this could become known as “the selfie election” as MPs become used to posing next to members of the public.
“Selfies are important. Photos are taken, and uploaded to Facebook, and reach many other voters,” the source said.
A much-emptied Commons is hearing speeches from other departing MPs, including Tessa Jowell, who of course harbours hopes of becoming Labour’s candidate for London mayor. One of Jowell’s claims is to be among the few MPs who does not have a home in her constituency. While she represents Dulwich and West Norwood in south London– not really a hardship posting – she lives in Highgate, north of the Thames.
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