Galloway thrown out of Commons

Respect MP George Galloway has been thrown out of the House of Commons after repeated clashes with the speaker Michael Martin.

Mr Galloway was 'named' and ordered out after a series of warnings about his angry denunciation of the Commons watchdog over a motion to suspend him from the House for 18 days over his financial links to Saddam Hussein's regime.

Being 'named' carries an automatic suspension from the Commons of five days.

The term comes from the fact that during a debate in the House of Commons, MPs refer to each other only by the name of their constituencies or by their official position, not their actual names.

The only time names are used are when the Speaker calls MPs to speak or disciplines them.

In this case, Mr Martin said: "I name Mr George Galloway." That triggered a motion that "Mr George Galloway be suspended from the service of the House" which was carried without a vote.

A first offence brings suspension for five days. The second offence in the same parliamentary sitting carries twenty days suspension and a third offence a period the House itself decides.

The maverick anti-war MP had been speaking for more than an hour as he sought to defend himself against the move.

In fiery exchanges, he accused the Standards and Privileges Committee of hypocrisy and of acting "unjustly" as Mr Martin admonished him for attacking the "good character" of its members.

He faces suspension after the watchdog accused him of damaging Parliament's reputation over links to an Iraq children's charity.

MPs will vote on his punishment tonight and are certain to suspend him.

Opening the debate, Mr Galloway told the Commons: "Once the Parliamentary Commissioner had decided, as he decided, not once but six times in his report, that he found no evidence in a four-year investigation, described by the committee as of unprecedented length and complexity, of any personal gain by me in this whole story, this became a dispute about the funding of political campaigns.

"Being lectured by the current House of Commons on the question of the funding of political campaigns is like being accused of having bad taste by Donald Trump, like being accused of slouching by the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

"This House stands in utter ill repute on the question of the funding of political campaigns."

During Mr Galloway's speech, Mr Martin intervened repeatedly to warn him to stick to the content of the report

But Mr Galloway said: "Having told me you would protect me, we are now getting to the stage where you are going to have to throw me out of Parliament prematurely."

As he was ordered from the chamber, he shouted that he would continue his speech outside for anyone who wanted to hear it.

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