 | 'Order.... order me a cab.' The Sun, 20 th May 2009. |  |
| 'Order.... order me a cab.' The Sun, 20 th May 2009. | |
OUSTED Commons Speaker Michael Martin makes a phone call in his office - perhaps to order a cab to whisk him away from the expenses scandal that ended his career yesterday.
Shamed Mr Martin became the first Speaker forced to resign in more than 300 years during a historic day of drama at Westminster.
He walked the plank hours after Prime Minister Gordon Brown told him to go - becoming the scandal's biggest scalp yet.
In a statement lasting little more than 30 seconds, he announced he would stand down next month to preserve "the unity of the House" after a near-mutiny by MPs from all parties.
His resignation was part of a coordinated bid to take the heat out of the snouts-in-the-trough controversy that has engulfed the Commons.
Within hours, Gordon Brown pledged to end Parliament's "gentlemen's club" by bringing in outside regulators to oversee MPs' pay and allowances.
Ex-sheet metal worker Mr Martin - dubbed Gorbals Mick because of his thick Glaswegian accent - failed to grasp public outrage over the exes disgrace.
And he signed his own death warrant with an appalling performance in the Commons on Monday afternoon.
He bungled the handling of a no-confidence motion in his post - and refused to declare he would stand down at the next election.
A string of angry MPs denounced the 64-year-old Speaker to his face.
Many had already lost faith in him after he failed to stop police ransacking shadow immigration minister Damian Green's Commons office without a warrant. Mr Martin's resignation will trigger a crucial by-election in his Glasgow North East seat, which Labour could lose to the SNP.
But he will almost certainly be rewarded for his nine years as Speaker with a peerage. And he will be able to draw a gold-plated pension of up to £82,000 a year.
The sum is made up of a unique Speaker's perk of half his final salary plus a full Parliamentary pension as he has been an MP for 30 years.
Tory former Chancellor Nigel Lawson called for Mr Martin to be denied the peerage.
Lord Lawson said: "He has let the House of Commons down. He has let parliamentary democracy down and it is good that he has gone.
"I very much hope that he will not be offered the customary peerage because I am afraid to say he clearly does not deserve it."
The last Speaker forced from office was Sir John Trevor.
He was found guilty of "a high crime and misdemeanour" for accepting a bribe in 1695.
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