UK Speaker backs Zimbabwe’s Commonwealth return, legislative support

THE United Kingdom’s (UK) Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, has thrown his full weight behind Zimbabwe’s bid to rejoin the Commonwealth, promising to lobby the UK Executive to expedite Harare’s return.

Speaking during historic talks with Zimbabwe’s Speaker Advocate Jacob Mudenda in London this week, Hoyle assured Mudenda that he would push the UK government to fast-track Zimbabwe’s readmission.

Hoyle said he would “engage with the Executive so as to expedite Zimbabwe’s efforts for full membership on this elite Club of the Commonwealth of Nations.”

Describing the modern Commonwealth, Hoyle told Mudenda: “The contemporary Commonwealth is a different grouping from its past, founded on the relationship of independent and equal members.”

The pledge is a major diplomatic win for Zimbabwe, which quit the Commonwealth in 2003 and reapplied in 2018.

Speaker Mudenda told his UK counterpart that Zimbabwe has already reapplied, and previous impediments have largely been removed.

“Zimbabwe had reapplied for membership and that, to a larger extent, previous impediments had been removed,” Mudenda said.

He pointed to the recent visit to Zimbabwe by the Commonwealth Secretary-General, saying “no negative observations had been raised during that engagement.”

Mudenda added that both Zimbabwe and its Parliament are keen to return.

“Zimbabwe’s, and indeed Parliament’s desire to rejoin the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) respectively.”

The two Speakers discussed the value of Commonwealth membership, including access to political dialogue, cooperation on shared development priorities, and opportunities to boost links in trade, education and technological transfer.

Mudenda used the occasion of a luncheon held in his honour to make a strong case for Africa to define its own democracy.

“There is a need for European countries to give African countries an opportunity to chart their own pathways insofar as the evolution of democracy is concerned, noting that democracy is an evolving phenomenon, which has taken the UK 811 years to establish since the publication of the Magna Carta.”

Mudenda noted that there is “no agreed template on democracy”, recalling how in the UK “Parliament became the epicentre of peoples representative will to the extent that when the Monarch opposed the Parliamentary democracy movement, King Charles I was murdered by the rebel barons, subsequently King Charles II had to abdicate.”

The meeting also drew in key ally, Labour MP for Newcastle Adam Jogee, whose roots are Zimbabwean and who has long lobbied for Zimbabwe’s readmission. They spoke passionately about Zimbabwe’s return to the CPA.

CPA Secretary-General Steven Twigg and his deputy Jarvis Matiya welcomed Zimbabwe’s proposal for a phased approach, beginning with special observer status and, over time, work towards full membership.

Twigg said observer status could provide a practical short-term route while a permanent solution is considered. The parties agreed to explore expediting this through an online CPA Africa Executive Meeting or round robin, with a possible invitation for Zimbabwe to attend the next CPA Conference in Ottawa, Canada, 5 to 12 September 2027.

This comes after three Parliaments were admitted as special observers at the last CPA Assembly in Cape Town in September 2026.

Mudenda’s visit, which saw him become the first Zimbabwean Speaker to be officially acknowledged in the House of Commons during PMQs on October 21, 2026, is being seen as a symbolic reset after decades of strained Zimbabwe-UK relations.

He invited Speaker Hoyle to visit Zimbabwe, an invitation Hoyle graciously accepted.

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