Lindsay Hoyle chosen to replace Bercow as UK Commons speaker

LONDON — Long-serving Labour Party lawmaker Lindsay Hoyle was elected speaker of Britain’s House of Commons on Monday, taking up the job with a clear message: I’m not John Bercow. He vowed to bring a change of tone and temperament to a political system that has been strained by Brexit; to restore Parliament’s battered reputation and to be “neutral” and “transparent.” Hoyle remarked that lawmakers have “got to make sure that tarnish is polished away.” He said the House of Commons will change, “but it will change for the better.” Hoyle, 62, was elected to Parliament in 1997, has served as one of the three deputy speakers since 2010 and is widely popular and respected by colleagues. As Parliament wrangled angrily for months over Brexit, Bercow became a celebrity around the world with his garish ties, bellowed calls of “Or-derrr!” and sharp-tongued rebukes to noisy lawmakers “chuntering from a sedentary position.” Bercow denied Brexit bias, but clashed with the government, and strongly opposed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s attempt to suspend Parliament for five weeks as an Oct. 31 Brexit deadline approached. Conservative lawmaker Charles Walker, who backed Hoyle, said he hoped the new speaker would bring “a period of calm and reflection.” Johnson, the prime minister, told Hoyle in the House of Commons that he was sure the new speaker would bring his “signature kindness and reasonableness to our proceedings, and thereby.