Commons Speaker: 'Long-haul' Lindsay Hoyle blew £250k on luxury travel
By GUY ADAMS and DAVID CHURCHILL
Published: 22:56 GMT, 7 March 2025 | Updated: 01:48 GMT, 8 March 2025
It's a long way from the cobbled streets of Chorley to Gibraltar's famous Rock Hotel.
One is a Lancashire mill town famed for flat caps and flattened fruitcakes, while the other calls itself an 'icon of hospitality and first-class service' boasting 'colonial heritage and art deco style with all the contemporary comforts our discerning guests have come to expect'.
The Rock has been a star-studded hangout for decades. After the war, it hosted the likes of Winston Churchill, Errol Flynn, Alec Guinness, John Lennon, Sean Connery and Roger Moore.
In more recent years, Bob Geldof, King Charles, Prince Edward, and Hollywood stars Henry Cavill and Gemma Arterton have walked through its botanic gardens or sipped cocktails on its Wisteria Terrace.
Yet these two very different places have an unlikely celebrity connection: they are both favourite stomping grounds of Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the 158th Speaker of the House of Commons.
In recent years Hoyle, the MP for Chorley famed for his booming Lancastrian voice and proud working-class roots, has made an annual pilgrimage to the luxury hotel, which boasts Gibraltar's largest outdoor swimming pool.
He always flies via British Airways and its partner airlines, with an entourage that includes two or three aides.
They refuse to travel in anything apart from business class and usually stay for three nights in early December, often choosing to dine at The Rock, which offers the 'exclusive fine dining' restaurant Alfred's.