Manchester would be a better home for temporary House of Commons than York, says Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle

Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he did not think York was "on the agenda for the House of Commons" despite Boris Johnson suggesting it could be a temporary location for Parliament.

In a letter earlier this month the Prime Minister said the Government was "considering establishing a Government hub in York and it would therefore make sense to consider this as a potential location”.

It comes amid reports that the Roman city of York is being considered as a potential second centre of government and could be a new permanent home for the Upper House.

But Sir Lindsay said that although York was a "beautiful city" its lack of transport links to other areas of the country such as his native Lancashire would be a problem.

Asked by the Press Association if he would support a potential move to York while the Palace is being refurbished, he joked: “What - being a Lancastrian? That would be outrageous, wouldn’t it?

"How could a red rose man end up in York. The last time we did that was during the war that we managed to win. Maybe this one York would be the spoils of that great war…

“Why don’t you use Lancaster? You know we’ve got a huge castle there.... We could move Parliament into there wherever we wanted.

“But I think joking apart, if you were serious about going somewhere else and you want to go to a major city, I think the infrastructure is there, you know, there’s no better than our second city Manchester...

"But the reality is you’ve got Manchester, you’ve got Birmingham, you’ve got Leeds.

“We have some major cities and I would have thought if you were serious about location - where’s halfway in the country, who has got the airport in there, who has got the real connections?

“As much as York is on the mainline, it would probably take me longer to go from Chorley to York than what it does from Chorley to London. That’s just the nature of the railway line, and there’s no immediate airport to it.

“So great PR, yep let’s get people talking about somewhere else other than Parliament, but the reality is at some point we’ve got to come back and discuss what can we do with Parliament, how do we deal with Parliament and the House will have to take that decision.

“Personally do I think York is on the agenda? No, I don’t think York is on the agenda for the House of Commons.

“I just don’t think it will work. In fairness to York I think it's a beautiful city, I’ll put that on the record, I think it's absolutely fantastic. It’s great if you’re coming up from London or you are coming down from Edinburgh. It’s not much good for the rest of us.”

Sir Lindsay added that Boris Johnson must not "shy away" from parliamentary scrutiny as he criticised the Government for making major announcements to the media rather than MPs.

The Speaker said he is "perplexed" when Ministers make statements in Downing Street that could have been delivered in the chamber, as he urged the Government to "put the House first".

He said MPs were the "right people" to scrutinise ministers, and took aim at announcements made at the daily coronavirus press conferences.

Sir Lindsay has reprimanded ministers in recent months for briefing the press before MPs.

The Ministerial Code states that "the most important announcements of Government policy should be made in the first instance, in Parliament" when it is sitting.

Asked if he believes Mr Johnson and his Government respect Parliament, the Speaker said: "They're elected to Parliament.

"I think we've always got to remind people: you may be the Prime Minister but you have a constituency that elects the MP to this House, and he is no different.

"He may be the Prime Minister but he is still a Member of Parliament.

"What I would say is the House should know first, I'm very clear on that, and I do get perplexed when we see a statement being made in Downing Street that could have been made in the House.

"The House should hear it first."