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Latest: Gone in 33 seconds - Speaker falls on his sword
Joe Murphy, Paul Waugh and Nicholas Cecil19 May 2009
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- Commentary: Man made to deliver his own death blow
Michael Martin gave up his battle to stay on as Speaker this afternoon in a statement lasting just 33 seconds.
He fell on his sword in front of a packed Commons with a terse and calm resignation statement. Showing almost no emotion, Mr Martin 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 21 June. This will allow the House to proceed to elect a new Speaker on Monday 22 June. That is all I have to say on this matter.”
Queues of ministers and MPs lined up to shake his hand, including the Prime Minister, Alistair Darling, and Tory grandee Nicholas Soames. David Cameron and Nick Clegg did not.
Earlier, as the Speaker's procession filed through the Commons, a group of MPs lined the route to applaud him warmly. The scenes were a far cry from the harsh reality that Mr Martin was brutally ousted — the first Speaker in 300 years to be hounded out — by MPs who yesterday yelled to his face that he must go and then held a no-confidence motion to his throat. Tempers were running high this afternoon and a rattled John Prescott told an ITN news crew seeking an interview to “f**k off”.
There will now be a by-election in his Glasgow North East constituency that Labour will struggle to hold against the buoyant Scottish Nationalists. Party sources said they might delay it to the autumn in the hope of Gordon Brown's political fortunes improving. Mr Martin retires on a pension of around £65,000 a year, less than half his £141,866 salary as Speaker. But he will not get a resettlement grant that MPs quitting at a general election get.
By tradition, a Speaker also gets a peerage on standing down, in which case he will swap his robes for ermine and get a £140 daily attendance allowance. There was relief among MPs that a bloody confidence debate had been avoided by the Speaker's decision.
Commons Leader Harriet Harman called it “an act of great generosity”. Close ally Sir Stuart Bell said: “He did the noble thing.”
Many hoped a new reforming Speaker will move quickly to restore trust in a Parliament brought to its knees by the expenses scandal. Douglas Carswell, the Tory who put down the confidence motion, said: “It was not a nice business. It's been extremely unpleasant work. This gives us a unique opportunity now to create a new House of Commons that is not a caste apart.”
Attempts to reform the expenses system were being rushed forward this evening by the Prime Minister and other party leaders.
They will include banning frivolous claims and appointing outsiders to enforce the rules properly.
Mr Martin is by far the biggest victim of the expenses scandal. Another big name also fell today. Tory MP Douglas Hogg, who claimed for a moat to be cleaned, announced he will retire at the election.
The Speaker had tried to fight on, but pressure increased this morning, when the number of names on the “no confidence ” motion swelled to 23.
The Evening Standard learned that Mr Martin last night met the Prime Minister, whose view was that the Government could not refuse a confidence debate. “Simply to allow the debate would have tipped the Speaker over the edge,” said a source. “That was the reality.”
There were signs of disarray over the choice of new Speaker. Some angry Labour MPs said they would refuse to let the Conservatives take a turn. Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who was first to speak in the Commons after the statement, told MPs that he had been asked by Mr Martin not to pay tributes until he stands down.
Mr Martin's allies bitterly warned that the scandals would not be ended by finding a scapegoat, even one who had been criticised as a roadblock to reform.
Lord Foulkes, a close friend, said: “The people who have hounded him out of office should hang their heads in shame at the despicable way they have treated him.” But Tony Wright, Labour chairman of the all-party public administration committee, said a “boil” had been lanced.
Liberal Democrat MP Nick Harvey, who sits on the Commons Commission, said of Mr Martin: “He has done the right thing for the House. He's a very nice man. I feel very sympathetic for him personally.”
Many said he could have stayed on to the next election. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “When things go horribly wrong, when armies lose battles, you don't blame the foot soldiers, you blame the generals.”
