"We'll leave it there and I hope there are no more points of order, there's an Arsenal match on television very soon," said Commons Speaker John Bercow.
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As another round of votes on possible amendments to Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal drew to a close on Thursday, Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow made no secret of the fact he was ready to get out of the door.
"We'll leave it there and I hope there are no more points of order, there's an Arsenal match on television very soon," he declared.
A smiling Bercow added: "But the chair will always attend to his duties."
He later went on to joke: "I'm playing for time here" before being reminded by a fellow MP that the UEFA Europa League football match between Arsenal and Belarusian side FC BATE Borisov "starts in three minutes".
Bercow, a passionate Arsenal supporter, would have been disappointed, as his side went down 1-0.
Critics have said May's government is running down the clock until the deadline when the UK is scheduled to leave the bloc on March 29.
British lawmakers dealt yet another blow to the prime minister on Thursday when they rejected a motion to reiterate their support for her Brexit strategy.
She asked parliament to "reiterate its support for the approach to leaving the EU expressed by this House on 29 January 2019 and notes that discussions between the UK and the EU on the Northern Ireland backstop are ongoing."
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