COMMONS SPEAKER Michael Martin bowed to the inevitable and resigned yesterday as prime minister Gordon Brown signalled an end to the “gentlemen’s club” environment that produced the Westminster expenses scandal.
After Monday’s unprecedented challenges to his authority on the floor of the House of Commons, Mr Martin told a packed chamber that he would relinquish his office on June 21st, to enable his successor to be elected the following day. Mr Martin thus became the first Commons speaker to be effectively forced from office in more than 300 years.
On another dramatic day at Westminster, the expenses crisis continued to claim casualties. Conservative MP Douglas Hogg – who repaid parliamentary expenses claimed to clear a moat at his country estate – announced he is standing down at the general election.
Mr Brown, meanwhile, said that Labour MPs found to have “defied the rules” on expenses would not be permitted to seek re-election. That seemed to signal the de-selection of Labour MPs accused of claiming mortgage interest payments for mortgages they had already paid off.
Speculation about the fate of communities secretary Hazel Blears also resumed after Mr Brown described her behaviour as “totally unacceptable”. The cabinet minister last week agreed to pay the Inland Revenue £13,332 (€15,138) after it was revealed she had avoided tax on the profit from the sale of a “second home” in London described for revenue purposes as her primary residence. Following a meeting with the other Westminster party leaders, and speaking ahead of Mr Martin’s report back to the Commons last night, Mr Brown warned Westminster that the era of self-regulation was over. A new independent outside body was now required to assume the role of the House of Commons Fees Office and operate a new, reformed allowance system for MPs.
“I believe that the keystone of any reform must be the switch from self-regulation to independent external regulation,” said Mr Brown. “Westminster cannot operate like some gentlemen’s club where the members make up the rules and operate them among themselves. If MPs continue to set their own codes and rules, however objectively they try to do so, the public will always question the transparency and the standards that they rightly demand.”
The government is to make legislative time available for what Mr Brown termed the devolution of powers on MPs’ remunerations to an outside body. The prime minister also announced that MPs would no longer set their own pay, which will be done by the Senior Salaries Review Body.
Mr Brown paid tribute to Mr Martin, who convened yesterday’s meeting of the party leaders and who, the prime minister said, had demonstrated his support for reform. “The speaker has given decades of public service, he has been honoured by the House of Commons by being elected their speaker. He has made his own independent decision to retire from that office,” said Mr Brown.
Conservative leader David Cameron said: “I think it was, in the end, the right thing for to do because obviously he’d lost the confidence of the House of 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. That’s what they want. They are very angry with what has happened, that’s quite clear.”