Britain's Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has today called for the resignation of Commons Speaker Michael Martin amid the ongoing controversy over MPs' expenses.
Mr Clegg abandoned Westminster convention that party leaders avoid criticism of the office holder to demand the exit of “a dogged defender of the ways things are”.
"I do think the Speaker should be made a scapegoat . . . for the individual failings of many MPs, he told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show.
“But equally I do not think we can afford the luxury of a Speaker, who is supposed to embody Westminster, who has been dragging his feet on transparency and greater accountability in the way MPs receive their expenses.”
His intervention comes on the eve of the tabling of a motion of “no confidence” in Mr Martin and reports he is set to announce he will step down next year.
Mr Clegg said he represented a “growing body of opinion” among MPs in calling for Mr Martin to go. The Commons needed a Speaker who was a “reformist to his or her fingertips”.
He added: “Westminster is now engulfed by a political crisis the likes of which we haven’t seen for generations. We need to now do something different, radically different, and I just don’t think defenders of the status quo are the right kind of people to do that.”
He predicted a “snowball effect” with more MPs speaking out against Mr Martin: “I think it needs to happen sooner rather than later, I think the Speaker needs to do the decent thing, recognise things have changed, that he is not the right man for the job, and move on.”
John Stonborough, the Speaker's former media adviser, told the Sunday Timesthat Mr Martin had vetoed radical reform of the expenses system and reacted angrily when challenged over his own claims.
“He reacted extremely violently,” he said when challenged that his decision to claim second-home allowance while living in a grace-and-favour property did not “look good”.
Officials were too scared of him to challenge his decisions, he suggested.
PA