House of Representatives ‘paralysed’ after attempts to elect new Speaker collapse

The US House of Representatives remains effectively paralysed after attempts to elect a new Speaker collapsed on Thursday night amid continued infighting among Republican politicians.

Louisiana congressman Steve Scalise, who was elected as the Republican Party’s nominee for Speaker on Wednesday, dropped out of the contest on Thursday night.

Mr Scalise failed to secure sufficient support among his party’s members in the House of Representatives to reach the 217 votes needed to win the speakership on the floor of the chamber.

The previous Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy was ousted last week in a revolt by a group of hard right members of his Republican Party.

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Without a Speaker, the House of Representatives is leaderless and cannot pass legislation including authorisation for aid packages for Israel or Ukraine.

The US Congress also needs to pass spending bills to authorise the budget for next year by the middle of November to avoid a shutdown of the Government which would see hundreds of thousands of federal employees go without pay.

Mr Scalise defeated Ohio congressman Jim Jordan on Wednesday to become the Republican nominee for the speakership.

However, an insufficient number of his party or conference in the House of Representatives were prepared to back him in the full vote on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The Republican Party in the House of Representatives contains a number of factions and politicians in a number of groupings made clear they did not support the man who had won the election to be official nominee, often for different reasons including his health.

On Thursday, former president Donald Trump weighed into the argument within the Republican Party over who should be Speaker.

He argued that Mr Scalise should not get the role as he is currently undergoing treatment for blood cancer.

“Steve is a man that is in serious trouble, from the standpoint of his cancer,” Mr Trump said on Fox News Radio.

“I just don’t know how you can do the job when you have such a serious problem.”

After announcing he was withdrawing from the contest on Thursday night, Mr Scalise said: “This House of Representatives needs a speaker and we need to open up the House again. But clearly, not everybody is there and there’s still schisms that have to get resolved.”

“There’s still work to be done. Our conference still has to come together and it is not there. There are still some people that have their own agendas.”

With Mr Scalise stepping out of the contest, Republicans in the House of Representatives effectively go back to square one to decide who should be their nominee for Speaker.

There was speculation on Thursday night that attention may turn again to Mr Jordan who is chair of the House judiciary committee and a strong supporter of Mr Trump.

Supporters of Mr McCarthy may also want him to put his name forward again.

Republicans in the House of Representatives will meet again on Friday in another attempt to elect a new Speaker.