The Glasgow North East By-election 2009

'As Speaker since 2000, Mr Martin has been in ultimate charge of Commons administration and had repeatedly thwarted moves to ensure greater transparency on parliamentary expenses. He had himself been criticised on more than one occasion on his lavish expenditure, which included £4,000 in claims for his wife's taxi bills while she was out shopping and more than £700,000 spent on refurbishing Speaker's House, where he received the Prime Minister yesterday.' Philippe Naughton and Philip Webster, Political Editor in the Times, 19 th May 2009.

Speaker Michael Martin quits: I will step down on June 21

By Philippe Naughton and Philip Webster, Political Editor in the Times 19 th May 2009

Michael Martin announced his resignation as Speaker of the House of Commons today, swept away by the expenses scandal engulfing Westminster. He is the first Speaker to be forced from office for more than 300 years.

The veteran Glasgow MP had effectively sealed his own fate when stubbornly refused to countenance discussion of his own future during a Commons statement yesterday. As a string of senior MPs stood up to demand his resignation, his authority crumbled away.

This afternoon, after bowing to the inevitable, Mr Martin again addressed a packed House to lay out the timetable for his departure. His statement lasted less than a minute before the Commons passed on to other business.

"Since I came to this House 30 years ago, I have always felt that the House is at its best when it is united," he said.

"In order that unity can be maintained, I have decided that I will relinquish the office of Speaker on Sunday June 21. This will allow the House to proceed to elect a new Speaker on Monday June 22.

"That is all I have to say on this matter."

Within hours of announcing his resignation, Mr Martin was due to return tonight to the Commons to announce to MPs an agreement between all three party leaders to end centuries of self-regulation. In a press conference this evening, Gordon Brown said an agreement had been reached in principal over the introduction of an independent statutory body to oversee the rules governing MPs expenses and pay. The statement was due to take place at 7.20pm.

As he steps down from the Speaker's chair, Mr Martin will also be standing down as an MP Ð leaving a vacancy in his constituency of Glasgow North East.

Under electoral rules, the party that holds a vacant seat has the right to choose the date for a by-election but in this case the Speaker no longer represents the party, Labour, for which he was first elected 30 years ago.

It is assumed at Westminster that the decision over timing will nevertheless fall to Labour, which will move quickly to call a by-election to avoid giving the Scottish National Party, which stood against Mr Martin in 2005, even longer to prepare its campaign.

The picture is clouded because neither the Conservatives nor the Liberal Democrats put up a candidate against Mr Martin last time.

As has happened with previous Speakers, Mr Martin is expected to be given a seat in the Lords Ð although that has not yet been confirmed and would doubtless cause an outcry given the circumstances of his departure.

Mr Martin's decision to resign allowed him to avoid the humiliation of a debate and vote from a no-confidence motion tabled by the Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell.

That motion showed up for the first time on the Commons order paper this morning, signed by 23 MPs, including Labour's Kate Hoey and the Liberal Democrat Norman Baker, both of whom were victim of unparliamentary taunts from the Speaker last week which prompted the first open calls for his departure.

Mr Carswell said after the Speaker's statement: "It had to happen Ð it was not a nice business. It's been an extremely unpleasant week Ð you cannot clean up a cesspit without doing some unpleasant things."

Shortly before Mr Martin's statement today, it emerged that he received a secret visit from Gordon Brown after yesterday's appearance, reinforcing the assumption that he was encouraged to stand down despite the longstanding parliamentary convention that the Speaker is above party politics.

More obviously wielding the knife was the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who told reporters this morning that he, too, would be signing the no-confidence motion. Mr Clegg had already broken with convention at the weekend by calling for the Speaker's resignation.

So far the field appears to be wide open for Mr Martin's successor, who will be the first Speaker to be chosen by secret ballot.

Among the early frontrunners are Sir George Young, the "bicycling baronet" who chairs the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, and Frank Field, the former Welfare Minister under Tony Blair.

Also throwing in her hat this afternoon was the veteran Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, who reportedly offered to serve as a stand-in Speaker until the next election, when she is already due to stand down.

But Ms Widdecombe herself said that it was too early to talk of replacement Speakers: "We should have a period of reflection, not running around like headless chickens. There has been enough of that lately."

Her fellow Tory, Nigel Evans, attempting to get a Widdecombe bandwagon rolling, said: "The institution of Parliament is in need of serious reform. I would like to see Ann Widdecombe in the Speaker's chair helping to lead that reform."

As Westminster reverberated to the news of Mr Martin's departure, the Tory MP whose claim for the cleaning of the moat his country estate came to embody MPs' excesses announced that he is to stand down at the next general election.

Douglas Hogg, who has represented Sleaford and North Hykeham in Lincolnshire since 1979 and served as Agriculture Minister under John Major, was embarrassed by the revelation that he claimed £2,115 for having the moat dredged at his country manor house.

He has paid that money back even while denying that he ever specifically claimed it, insisting that he gave the Fees Office a list of costs associated with the running of his estate which far exceeded the Additional Costs Allowance which is at the heart of the expenses scandal.

As Speaker since 2000, Mr Martin has been in ultimate charge of Commons administration and had repeatedly thwarted moves to ensure greater transparency on parliamentary expenses.

He had himself been criticised on more than one occasion on his lavish expenditure, which included £4,000 in claims for his wife's taxi bills while she was out shopping and more than £700,000 spent on refurbishing Speaker's House, where he received the Prime Minister yesterday.

As Mr Martin prepared to deliver his resignation statement, his supporters complained that he had simply been made a scapegoat for MPs' excesses.

The former Cabinet minister Frank Dobson said he was "distressed and to some extent disgusted" at what was happening to Mr Martin, telling BBC News: "It is a bit like a lot of people in a lifeboat slinging one person out in the hope that the water won't now lap over us."

Mr Martin had summoned Mr Brown and other party leaders for talks this afternoon on reforming the expenses system. Even though he will now be a lame duck, that meeting was going ahead. As he left the Speaker's chair today to prepare for it, MPs on both sides of the house stood up to applaud him for his years of service, although formal tributes will be paid later.

In a written statement, the Commons Leader Harriet Harman said: "Michael Martin's resignation today as Speaker is an act of great generosity to the House of Commons that Members of Parliament from all parties will respect.

"Michael Martin has served the House as Speaker with distinction. The House will have an opportunity to pay its own tribute to him before he leaves the Chair. As someone who has been in the House of Commons with him for over 25 years, I know that his passionate commitment to the House is beyond doubt. The House owes him a great debt of gratitude."

Meanwhile, Labour's ruling executive ruled that any Labour MPs who have abused their parliamentary expenses will be barred from standing for re-election on the party's ticket.

A new panel will consider any prima facie cases against MPs arising from a comprehensive audit of all allowance claims made in the past four years. It will start with Elliot Morley and David Chaytor, who were suspended from the Parliamentary party after claiming for mortgage interest on non-existent loans.