Gorbals Mick becomes the first Speaker of the Commons to be forced out since 1695

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History was made yesterday as Michael "Gorbals Mick" Martin was yesterday forced to resign his job as Speaker of the House of Commons - the first Speaker to be forced out of his job since 1695, and the first since the merger of the English/Welsh and Scottish parliaments to form the British parliament and the British nation in 1707.

Scotsman Gorbals Mick - so named because of the rough area of Glasgow from which he comes from - was ousted in a very British revolution (unlike other countries, when the British have a revolution, it's usually done in a relatively peaceful, non-violent way).

He will resign on 21st June, the longest day of the year, and an election will take place the next day to elect a new Speaker.

Gorbals Mick has become the target of public, and political, fury over the last couple of weeks over his mishandling of the MPs' expenses scandal.

The Daily Telegraph has recently printed what various MPs have spent on their expenses - expnses which are provided by the British taxpayer.

These range from things such as mortgages and new homes to chocolate bars, bath plugs, tampons, porn videos and - in the case of former Minister of Agriculture Douglas Hogg - having a moat cleaned.

Gorbals Mick, though, doesn't seem to realise the extent of public anger over these expenses.

He even had the audacity to decide to call in police to try and discover who leaked these expenses claims to The Telegraph.

When challenged by Labour MP Kate Hoey in the House of Commons last week that this will be a waste of money, Gorbals Mick attacked her (live on TV) saying: "I listen to you often, when I turn on my television at midnight, and I hear your public utterances and your pearls of wisdom on Sky News. It's easy to talk then.
"Some of us in this House have other responsibilities."

He obviously thinks it's okay for MPs to use taxpayers' money to pay for things, no matter how rich those MPs are (thus reinforcing the English view of Scots as greedy money-grabbers).

This caused MPs of all parties - and the public - to be absolutely outraged that the Speaker would verbally attack another member of the Commons in such a way, thus setting in motion the events that led to his resignation yesterday.

The Speaker is (like in other countries with British parliamentary systems such as Canada) the first commoner in the country (not the PM).

Gorbals Mick, who took over from Betty Boothroyd as Speaker in 2000, is the first Speaker to be forced from office since 1695 when Sir John Trevor was found guilty of accepting a bribe and the House voted to expel him.

The early frontrunners to replace him include Tories Sir George Young, Sir Alan Haselhurst (a Deputy Speaker) and John Bercow, former Labour minister Frank Field and LibDems Sir Menzies Campbell and Alan Beith.

The contenders will need to secure the backing of 12 to 15 of their colleagues - with at least three MPs from other parties.

After a speech in the Commons, they face a series of secret ballots until one has secured more than 50 per cent of the vote.

The weakest candidates will be eliminated round by round.

And, once elected, one of the many little quirky British traditions take place. On his first day, the new Speaker is dragged to his chair, a tradition which supposedly dates back to the War of the Roses in the 15th Century when many people were reluctant to have the job.

The first Presiding Office was Peter de Montfort, who presided over England's Mad Parliament from 1258-1265 during the reign of Henry III, but the first actual Speaker was Sir Thomas Hungerford who, in 1377, became the Speaker of the Bad Parliament, the parliament that introduced the poll tax that led to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

It's also interesting to note that Britain has more political representatives than any country other than China, the world's largest country. The British Parliament (which governs England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) has 646 MPs in the House of Commons and 738 members of the House of Lords. On top of this, the Scottish Parliament has 129 MPs, the Welsh Assembly has 60 members and the Northern Irish Assembly has 108 members (unfairly, England has no parliament).

In contrast, the US Parliament has just 435 in the House of Representatives (its equivalent of the Commons) and just 100 members in the Senate (its equivalent of the Lords).

Don't lumber us with him! Peers launch campaign to keep Speaker Michael Martin out of the House of Lords

By Tim Shipman
20th May 2009
Daily Mail



  • Fury as Speaker is set to become a peer after resigning
  • Former Chancellor Nigel Lawson leads calls to stop elevation to Lords
  • Brown rules out snap election to purge Parliament
  • Hazel Blears could be the next victim of scandal
Michael Martin should be denied a peerage after stepping down as Commons speaker, former Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson has declared.

Lord Lawson led calls for the Speaker not to be elevated to the Upper Chamber following his resignation yesterday.

It came as Gordon Brown rejected calls for a snap election to 'clear the air' in Parliament, claiming it would be 'chaos'.

The expenses crisis was also on the verge of claiming yet another scalp amid speculation Communities Secretary Hazel Blears is facing demotion from the Cabinet.



He's off: Speaker Michael Martin in the House of Commons last night after his resignation. He can look forward to a £1.4million pension and a peerage

Mr Martin finally fell on his sword after Gordon Brown intervened to tell him the game was up and will stand down both as Speaker and as an MP on June 21.

He has presided over the Commons for eight years which have brought Parliament to its lowest ebb in centuries.

But despite being the first Speaker to be ousted from his post in more than 300 years, he is still due to become a peer and receive a £1.4million pension pot.

Parliamentarians and campaigners are furious that he should be rewarded for his failure to get to grips with the expenses scandal.

The peerage in particular has provoked an outcry with Lord Lawson one of many calling for the tradition of ennobling the Speaker to be broken in his case.

'He has let the House of Commons down. He has let parliamentary democracy down and it is good that he has gone,' he said.

'I very much hope that he will not be offered the customary peerage because I am afraid to say he clearly does not deserve it.'


Protest: Lord Nigel Lawson has called for the Speaker not to be elevated to the House of Lords


Lord Oakeshott, a LibDem spokesman in the Lords, added: 'No one should pick up a peerage with his P45, least of all Mr Martin who has so damaged our democracy.'

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'His resignation should be immediate, he should get no payoff and he absolutely must not be elevated to the Lords.'

At least he hasn't been beheaded...

By Marcus Dunk
19th May 2009
Daily Mail


The 1381 Peasants' Revolt, during which the 14 year old King Richard II broke his promise to meet the peasants' demands

The role of Speaker of the House of Commons was mired in controversy from its earliest days.

The first Speaker, Sir Thomas Hungerford, was appointed in 1377 thanks to the patronage of Prince John of Gaunt and was seen as little more than a royal puppet.

Under his Speakership, the hugely despised poll tax was introduced, which led in turn to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

For the next 200 years the Speaker was generally recognised as an agent of the Crown. Although candidates were supposed to be elected by fellow MPs at the beginning of each parliament, the Crown was usually able to sway proceedings to place the man it wanted in the job, shaping the agenda in the monarch's favour.


Three speakers who lost their heads: Richard Empson, Sir Thomas More and Edmond Dudley


This occasionally made the role fraught with danger, particularly when a new monarch came to power and the Speaker found himself out of royal favour.

During the War of the Roses when the rival houses of Lancaster and York clashed over the throne, five Speakers were beheaded, murdered or killed in battle.

It is thought that the reluctance of individuals to take up the troubled role during this period is reflected in the continuing tradition of MPs physically dragging the Speaker to the Chair after he is elected.

Speakers fared no better during the reign of Henry VIII, who managed to behead three of them - Sir Thomas More, Sir Richard Empson and Edmond Dudley. But the perception of the Speaker being 'the King's man' changed decisively during the troubled reign of Charles I.

Already under pressure from an emboldened Parliament, the King entered the House on January 4, 1642 in an attempt to arrest five members for high treason.

He asked the Speaker, William Lenthall, to point out the offending members.

Lenthall, who until this point had been seen as ineffectual and timid, now came into his own with a robust response.

'May it please your Majesty,' he replied, 'I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here.'

The King was humiliated and obliged to leave the House, signalling both his own diminishing authority and the burgeoning power of Parliament (to this day, the Monarch, and every other member of the Royal Family, is not allowed in the Commons).

Eleven years later came Oliver Cromwell's dramatic move to dissolve Parliament.

After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 the Speaker's role changed yet again, with him now seen as a political appointee aligned to whichever party was in power, with many holding other government offices while retaining the position of Speaker.

It was not until the middle of the 19th Century that our current notions of impartiality became accepted practice.

Removing a Speaker from office is almost unprecedented. The only one (thus far) to be forcibly stripped of his role was Sir John Trevor in 1695. When he was found guilty of accepting a bribe the House voted to expel him.

Mr Martin's 34-second departure statement sparked an immediate frenzy over his successor, to be elected on June 22.

MPs predicted an X Factor-style contest - unlike previous secretive elections - with the contenders having to win over the public as well as MPs.

The early frontrunners include Tories Sir George Young and John Bercow, former Labour minister Frank Field and LibDems Sir Menzies Campbell and Alan Beith.

Mr Martin's resignation came as MPs finally showed they recognise the depth of public fury at the parliamentary gravy train by agreeing to an independent commission to scrutinise their financial affairs.

Last night senior government sources said it was 'a formality' that Glaswegian Mr Martin, nicknamed Gorbals Mick, will be given a seat in the House of Lords.


Standing room only: MPs listen as Mr Martin makes his historic statement


Full house: The Commons was packed for a second day running as this time Mr Martin did agree to fall on his sword and step down


As Speaker, 63-year-old Mr Martin is entitled to an annual pension of around £38,000.

When his MP's pension kicks in at 65, the former sheet metal worker will be receiving around £80,000 from taxpayer-funded pension pots worth £1.4million.

As a peer Mr Martin would qualify for £174 for each night he spends in London on Lords' business.

Allies of the Speaker said he decided to stand down after yesterday's newspapers made it clear his position was untenable.

Two conversations with the Prime Minister, who warned that the government would have to make time for a vote of no confidence on him, sealed his fate.

Mr Brown rammed home the message after ministers pressed him to act. 'I don't know of a single minister who wasn't telling Gordon to put him out of his misery,' said one. In the end, Mr Martin took just 34 seconds to read a four-sentence statement to Commons.

He said: 'Since I came to this House 30 years ago, I have always felt that the House is at its best when it is united. In order that unity can be maintained, I have decided that I will relinquish the office of Speaker on Sunday June 21.

'This will allow the House to proceed to elect a new Speaker on Monday June 22. That is all I have to say on this matter.'


Last hurrah: Speaker Martin is applauded as he walks through the lobby to make his statement. Inset - his resignation


His decision to stay another month was due to his desire to be seen as leading attempts at reform.

After a meeting with Mr Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, Mr Martin delivered a further statement announcing the death of the discredited Commons fees office.

His voice cracking with emotion, he revealed that MPs will no longer act as judge and jury of their own financial affairs.

But the lame duck Speaker had had to bully the Prime Minister into not announcing the measures himself at his press conference two hours earlier.

'Gordon, it is important to me that I am seen to make this statement. Show me that respect,' he said.


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Mr Brown paid tribute to Mr Martin, saying: 'The Speaker has given decades of public service.

'It is a measure of his professionalism and diligence that even in a day when he has announced his resignation he has been able to convene a meeting of the parties, reach agreement and go on to make a statement, showing that he is part of the reform that is needed in Parliament.'

David Cameron said: 'I think it was the right thing for him to do because obviously he'd lost the confidence of the Commons.


'But what we need is not just a new Speaker, we need a new Parliament, we need people to have the chance in a General Election to pass judgment on their politicians.'

Nick Clegg said: 'I think he has done the decent thing. I think it needed to be brought to a head, not because changing the Speaker is a sufficient condition for the top-to-toe reform of Westminster which we urgently need, but I think it is certainly a necessary step.'

Further evidence of the Speaker's misjudgments came when Scotland Yard announced it would not investigate the leak of MPs' expenses claims.

Mr Martin's insistence on bringing in police sparked the original flashpoint with MPs last week.

Senior Labour sources said the Prime Minister and his whips had hoped the Speaker would stay on until at least Christmas, to avoid a dangerous by-election in his Glasgow North East seat.

Many in the whips office were furious at the way Mr Martin's critics had ousted him, accusing them of spreading class-driven ill-feeling.

The Speaker himself refused to shake MrCameron's hand after his resignation.

Labour faces fight to hang on to Gorbals' seat

Gordon Brown will now come under intense pressure to call a by-election in Michael Martin's Glasgow North-East constituency.

Labour whips have warned the Prime Minister that Labour could lose the seat.

Mr Martin has not had to fight the seat since he took the chair in the Commons because by convention opposition parties do not challenge a sitting Speaker.

But the Scottish National Party is breathing down Labour's neck and has high hopes of overturning what was a Labour majority of 11,300 in 2001.

While losing the seat would barely dent Mr Brown's Commons majority, it would be a humiliating setback for the Prime Minister, whose leadership is likely to come under threat again from Blairite rebels after next month's local and European elections.

The Government can delay the by-election for up to three months but it won't be allowed to dawdle longer than that.

The fears of Labour whips are well founded. Despite the personal intervention of the Prime Minister, Labour humiliatingly lost the Glasgow East seat to the SNP in a by-election last year.



High crimes and misdemeanours

October 23, 2000: Elected Speaker amid claims election was stitched up by close friend Gordon Brown
October 30, 2001: Forced to apologise after speaking out in favour of Home Secretary David Blunkett's abolition of voucher scheme for asylum seekers
May 9, 2006: Attacks Press for using the 'hurtful' nickname 'Gorbals Mick'
June 6, 2007: Private Eye says Martin spent £20,000 of public money hiring libel lawyer to challenge negative Press stories
February 17, 2008: Emerges that he used air miles accumulated on official business to fly his children and their families business class
February 23: His spokesman resigns after unwittingly giving 'misleading' details about Mrs Martin spending £4,200 of public money on taxis for shopping trips
March 25, 2008: Speaker's 'shameless' last-ditch legal bid, costing £120,000 of public funds, to cover up MPs' expenses
March 29: Report that refurbishment of Martin's official residence, Speaker's House, cost taxpayer £1.7m over seven years
April 1: Standards Commissioner John Lyon launches sleaze probe into Mrs Martin's taxi trips
November 27: Provokes fury by failing to stop police raiding office of Tory MP Damian Green
May 9, 2009: Report that he claimed £1,400 for chauffeur-driven car trips that included visits to Celtic FC
May 18: Makes disastrous statement apologising for role in expenses fiasco
May 19: Bows to pressure by announcing he will quit on June 21 - first time a Speaker forced out of office since 1695

So who'll get the job? QUENTIN LETTS gives his views on the runners and riders...

The candidates to become the next Speaker face an 'X Factor' elimination contest.

The election of the Speaker has traditionally been stitched up by party whips and candidates are not supposed to be seen to campaign for the job.

But there was a growing consensus last night that centuries of tradition will be ripped up in the face of the political crisis.

Candidates have been warned they will have to produce manifestos and take to the airwaves to make their case.

One senior Tory who has been tipped as a long shot for the job told the Mail: 'This is going to be the first X Factor Speaker contest. There is going to be a fou-rweek-long beauty contest on television.

'Whoever we pick will have to be squeaky-clean.'

The contenders will need to secure the backing of 12 to 15 of their colleagues - with at least three MPs from other parties.

After a speech in the Commons, they face a series of secret ballots until one has secured more than 50 per cent of the vote.

The weakest candidates will be eliminated round by round.

Senior Tory MP David Davis said the new Speaker would be the 'most powerful in history'.

He added: 'This is a time for the House of Commons to find a new voice and that voice may not be the voice of the existing establishment.'

Although the Speaker is formally outside party politics, senior MPs last night said it would be 'outrageous' if Labour attempted to secure a third Speaker in a row.


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