{"id":5616,"date":"2026-05-13T21:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=5616"},"modified":"2026-05-13T21:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:32:24","slug":"labour-mp-held-hostage-in-buckingham-palace-during-kings-speech-in-bizarre-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=5616","title":{"rendered":"Labour MP &#8216;held hostage&#8217; in Buckingham Palace during King\u2019s Speech in bizarre tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><!--$--><\/p>\n<p><h2>Just another weird tradition to add to the pile<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose drop-cap \">\n<p>A Labour MP was &#8220;held hostage&#8221; in Buckingham Palace during the King&#8217;s Speech today in what is quite frankly a rather bizarre tradition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Brits are a rather self-deprecating nation, but, when it comes to the weird, wonderful and downright whacky, we truly excel. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>While the King&#8217;s Speech in itself is a rather odd tradition in the sense that a person, who is the head of state without any real governing power, reads out a script given to him by the actual people in power which details the changes they are making.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$?--><template id=\"B:0\"\/><!--\/$--><!--$?--><template id=\"B:1\"\/><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>While a constitutional monarchy is one thing, taking MPs hostage is another, slightly more extreme, hangover of the past.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<p><h2>A strange tradition<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>The tradition sees one MP, usually a government whip, &#8220;taken hostage&#8221; at Buckingham Palace while the King attends Westminster as a bargaining chip for the monarch&#8217;s safe return.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>The custom dates back to 1649 and is an echo of an era when the relationship between the monarch and Parliament was a lot more volatile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$?--><template id=\"B:2\"\/><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>This date is important as it was in that same year that Charles I was executed during the English Civil War and saw the only period where England had no monarch &#8211; so yeah, the bargaining chip was pretty crucial, although some might say not very effective in the long run.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Well, this tradition returned with the reestablishment of the monarchy and has taken place annually since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>This year, the lucky MP to be selected was Nic Dakin, Labour MP for Scunthorpe and Vice Chamberlain of HM Household.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$?--><template id=\"B:3\"\/><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Upon hearing the quirky story, much of the internet reacted in its usual, humorous fashion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$?--><template id=\"B:4\"\/><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Many people compared the tradition to that of the United States&#8217; &#8216;designated survivor&#8217; role which sees one person in the line of presential succession kept far away from the travelling president and their entourage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Other people made the rather obvious joke about sending Keir Starmer and &#8220;leaving him there&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>While another said: &#8220;Only in Britain can an MP get &#8216;held hostage&#8217; in Buckingham Palace and it\u2019s just a 300-year-old tradition to make sure the King comes back safely Peak UK symbolism.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$?--><template id=\"B:5\"\/><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Indeed, peak Britishness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><\/div>\n<p>#Labour #held #hostage #Buckingham #Palace #Kings #Speech #bizarre #tradition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just another weird tradition to add to the pile A Labour MP was &#8220;held hostage&#8221; in Buckingham Palace during the King&#8217;s Speech today in what is quite frankly a rather bizarre tradition. Brits are a rather self-deprecating nation, but, when it comes to the weird, wonderful and downright whacky, we truly excel. While the King&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1690,5747,2350,5745,610,159,5746,923,3425,18,177,5748],"class_list":{"0":"post-5616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"tag-bizarre","9":"tag-buckingham","10":"tag-held","11":"tag-hostage","12":"tag-kings","13":"tag-labour","14":"tag-labour-mp","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-palace","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-speech","19":"tag-tradition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}