News from the New Party

Wanted: a new broom

Anyone with more than a couple of brain cells to rub together from time to time would surely realise that if even your own PR adviser doesn't want to speak up for you then you are in serious trouble. There should be no question that the Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin should go.

Unfortunately, at this point it seems that he doesn't want to go and there is no obvious way of getting rid of him. The Speaker stands above the party fray - an icon of parliamentary prestige and integrity. Unfortunate, then, that he has been dragged into the morass of scandal around MPs' expenses. Even more unfortunate that MPs are reluctant to break cover and call for him to go. On the Labour side there is a feeling that all of this is a plot to get rid of a speaker who is seen even by many Labour MPs as ineffective and unacceptably partisan.

Melanie Phillips comments:

Speaker Martin should long ago have been replaced altogether, for the way he presides over Commons debates has been an absolute disgrace.

Supposedly above party politics, he has in fact regularly privileged Labour MPs over Tories with transparent displays of partiality and cronyism and a seemingly poor grasp of parliamentary procedure. Not only has the Opposition been tearing out its collective comb-over about such behaviour, but no fewer than 100 Labour MPs are also dismayed by his favouritism and bullying.

In the face of such disquiet, Speaker Martin issues the stock response that, as a working-class Glaswegian former metal-basher, he is simply being picked on because of his class.

Ordure, ordure, Mr Speaker! Such absurd whingeing is a shameless attempt to use social class as a shield to deflect entirely proper criticism.

To cap it all, he has shelled out a further £20,000 of public money to a firm of pricey libel lawyers to stave off such comments - a means of intimidation not available to many working-class metal-bashers from Glasgow or anywhere else.

He is simply the worst Speaker in living memory. It is a disgrace that he is still in office. But then, this dreary catalogue of abuse of office is all of a piece with the tragic decline of that great institution of which he is the custodian.

Iain Dale is hoping that the Men in Suits will ride to the rescue:

Needless to say our gutless MPs are keeping their heads down on this, with Norman Baker the only one to put his maverick head above the parapet. The real point is that Michael Martin has been the worst Speaker in living memory. He deserves to go because he's useless. The expenses allegations are a diversion from the point that he should go because of his incompetence. Every Labour MP I speak to recognises this privately and Conservatives and LibDems think so too. There is no formal mechanism for despatching a Speaker, but it would be a very foolish Speaker indeed who refused to go after being approached by a cross party delegation of men in grey suits. The usual channels should get to work.

Tim Hames at the Times makes a similar point:

Mr Martin is probably no worse than dozens of other MPs, especially the older sort, who believe that a little creative accountancy with their expenses could usefully supplement their comparatively modest salaries. His conduct is harder to defend because he is paid more than twice as much as a typical humble backbencher, but I am sure that there have been many excellent Speakers who have also played the system. The real scandal is that the House elevated a man who was manifestly unfit for the role and seven years later it will not press him into overdue retirement.

There are essentially three functions for the Speaker in the modern era - managing the daily business of the chamber, taking charge of a plethora of committees and individuals who run the vast Palace of Westminster and serving as the public face for Parliament.

In all of these jobs Mr Martin has been a monumental failure. His decisions in the House itself have prompted not only Tories but also Labour MPs to question his neutrality. His handling of Prime Minister's Questions has frequently been an embarrassment. His feeble chairmanship of the committees for which he is ultimately responsible has created an atmosphere in which some Members treat the House of Commons as if it were a private club and not a public institution whose loyalty should be to the electorate.

The job of representing Parliament to the wider world is profoundly important. Betty Boothroyd, in particular, demonstrated that a capable and charismatic Speaker could work wonders for the image of the House. Most MPs would agree that her successor, sadly, has been a failure.

Mr Martin, it should be acknowledged, still has a few defenders left - but then so does Mohamed Al Fayed. Rather than do something, though, they prefer to simply muddle through in the hope that he will announce an intention to stand down at the next election, or preferably sooner. Few of them express their opinions openly because that is "not done", besides which they fear that they might hurt their chances of being "called" in Parliament.

So nothing occurs, while the damage caused to the House of Commons by the expenses exposé becomes increasingly corrosive. It is stoking the dangerous sentiments in the public mind that "they are all the same" and "are all in it for themselves". This is very unfair. Most MPs are dedicated people who provide excellent value for money. The rules do, nevertheless, need a comprehensive overhaul and Mr Martin is plainly not the man to do it. His deputy, Sir Alan Haselhurst, would be better suited to the job.

While all of this is true, the chances of removing Michael Martin will be greatly enhanced by focusing on the immediate issue. If Mr Martin's alleged incompetence and partiality are cause for his departure, then this has not just become apparent now. For the good of parliament and the country, a Speaker who has demonstrated his unsuitability to spearhead a reform of MPs rules of financial conduct cannot be removed as part of a partisan vendetta. Iain Dale is right - the Men in Suits - from both sides of the House - should step in to ensure that Parliament gets a new broom to sweep it clean.