THE SPEAKER of the House of Commons Michael Martin will today make a last-ditch bid to save his job when he tells MPs he intends to lead a drive to reform parliament’s corrupted expenses system, and so defy a gathering campaign supported by senior figures in all three main parties to oust him from office immediately.
Mr Martin saw his support erode alarmingly yesterday when Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader; Charles Clarke, the former home secretary; and David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, called on him to resign immediately.
The Speaker, who has been criticised for missing the public mood of anger over disclosures about MPs’ expenses, and for attempting to block them becoming public, is due to make a statement to the Commons.
His allies, including the senior Labour MP Stuart Bell, indicated yesterday that Mr Martin might try to protect himself from humiliation by saying he will stand down at the next election, but not before, defying calls to go immediately. In what is rapidly escalating into a constitutional crisis, Gordon Brown did little to shore up Mr Martin’s personal authority when he issued a statement in support of the office of Speaker that did not support Mr Martin personally.
The former home secretary Mr Clarke became the most senior Labour figure to call on Mr Martin to stand aside, telling the Guardian: “Michael Martin is not the right man to oversee the necessary reform of the members’ allowance system. It would be best if he stood down so a new Speaker could take on that responsibility immediately.”
A motion of no confidence will be tabled today by Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell that will have the support of Mr Davis and some Labour MPs, including Kate Hoey.
Mr Clegg also broke with precedent to become the first party leader to call for Mr Martin to quit, telling the BBC’s Andrew Marr show: “I don’t think he is now the right man for the job in leading the renewal of Westminster. We need a fresh start. He’s been far too willing to drag his feet on issues like transparency.”
The Tories added to the pressure on Mr Martin, with the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, saying the situation had reached “crisis point”. Mr Hague stopping short of calling for Mr Martin to go, but offered no support for the Speaker. “This is clearly reaching crisis point now, this has to be resolved immediately if the House of Commons is to go about its business and the country is to have confidence in that,” Mr Hague told Sky News.
The Speaker’s office said the main focus of Mr Martin’s statement to MPs would be on how to reform the allowance system, adding that he had a fruitful meeting last week with the chairman of the committee on standards in public life, Sir Christopher Kelly. The committee is due to report later this year on how to reform MPs’ expenses, but Sir Christopher’s committee last night played down the significance of the meeting.
Friends of the Speaker also pointed out that in July last year he backed radical plans from the members’ estimates committee to reform the housing allowance system, including the right to claim on furniture or make capital gains, but MPs then rejected the reforms.
After a day of private consultations, No 10 issued a statement of neutrality, saying: “As we have consistently made clear, the Speaker is not appointed by the prime minister. It is right that the Speaker is independent of government and it is right that the prime minister should support the individual elected to be Speaker by the House of Commons.”
The statement did not repeat previous personal praise of Mr Martin. – (Guardian service)