18 May 2009

Pressure mounts on Michael Martin as Lib-Dem leader breaks ranks and calls on him to go

Pressure mounts on Michael Martin as Lib-Dem leader breaks ranks and calls on him to go

By Simon Walters
Last updated at 6:02 PM on 17th May 2009

Michael Martin to quit as speaker

Going, going: Michael Martin faces a vote of no confidence, but is said to be determined to remain as an MP for another year


The Lib Dem leader has broken ranks today by urging Michael Martin to quit as Speaker.

Calling for his resignation, Nick Clegg accused him of being a 'dogged defender of the way things are'.

In doing so he became the first party leader in modern political history to call for a Speaker to resign.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted the situation had reached "crisis point" and said it had to be resolved "one way or the other" this week.

But he declined to back demands for Mr Martin to go, stressing it would create a "dangerous precedent" if the Tory leadership were to join Mr Clegg's call.

He told Sunday Live on Sky News: '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.

'So this now needs resolving in the next couple of days not over the next few weeks.'

But the question of whether the Speaker should go was 'not a substitute' for dealing with the expenses issue: 'Just changing the occupant of the Speaker's chair is not the sole answer to that.'

He added: "On the question of whether we would say the same as Nick Clegg, well the Government and the alternative Government, the Conservative leadership, have to respect the fact that this must be a House of Commons decision because backbenchers, minority parties, all have to have confidence in the Chair.

Nick Clegg

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg appearing on the Andrew Marr Show today. He has called on the Speaker of the Commons to step down

'For the Government or the alternative Government to say the Speaker must go or a particular person must be Speaker sets a very dangerous precedent for the future.'

He said Tory MPs would be given a free vote if there was a vote of no confidence in the Speaker or on any future election of a new Speaker. He added: 'But it has reached crisis point and it must now be resolved one way or the other this week.'

Asked how he would vote he said: "I will listen to the debate and decide how to vote, that is what we are meant to do in the House of Commons...this has got to be a House of Commons decision.'

Michael Martin wants to install son Paul as MP in Glasgow North East

'Hereditary': Mr Martin, pictured in 1992 with wife Mary, is said to be determined to help his son Paul take over his seat in Westminster

It was revealed last night that Mr Martin has agreed to quit following a revolt by MPs and claims that he failed to curb MPs’ expenses.

However he is said to be fighting a rearguard action to stay on as an MP for another year so he can keep £100,000 of pay and perks and help his son Paul to inherit his Glasgow seat.


NICK CLEGG: '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.'

The Commons Speaker faces humiliation tomorrow when MPs try to force him out of the Speaker’s chair by tabling a motion of no confidence in him.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show today, Mr Clegg said: 'I do not think the Speaker should be made a scapegoat...for the individual failings of many MPs.

'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.'

Mr Clegg also said voters should have the power to force by-elections to remove expense cheat MPs.

In an attempt to avoid becoming the first Speaker for 313 years to be sacked, Mr Martin’s friends last night said he had agreed to ‘pre-announce’ his resignation in the next few weeks, while carrying on in the Speaker’s chair until the next Election, when he would step down.

Many MPs say his only hope of achieving that is to make the announcement now.

But a growing number of Tory and Lib Dem MPs say he must step down immediately.

It would leave Mr Martin with two options: a humiliating return to the backbenches, from where he would have to obey the orders of his successor; or quit politics altogether, causing a by-election in his Glasgow North East seat which Labour could well lose, thereby dashing his dream of handing over his seat to his son Paul at the next General Election.

Mr Martin’s hopes of avoiding a bloody end to his eight years presiding over the Commons faded as it emerged that:

  • Four of the five MPs on the House of Commons Commission chaired by Mr Martin think he should go.
  • Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and Tory big hitter David Davis joined the campaign to get him out.
  • His former media adviser, John Stonborough, has revealed he missed an opportunity to clean up the expenses system and 'exploded with rage' when challenged about his own second home allowance claims.

The Speaker is pinning his hopes on fellow Scot and friend Gordon Brown, who fears if Mr Martin is bundled out now he will have to resign as an MP as well.

That could lead to a disastrous by-election defeat for Labour to the Scottish Nationalists.

Mr Martin is believed to have another motive in wishing to carry on as a backbencher until the next Election.

Labour sources say he is determined to help his son, Paul, a Member of the Scottish Parliament to take over his Westminster seat.

That would be impossible in a high profile by-election where any such nepotism could cause a backlash, but such a reaction is less likely in a General Election where individual candidates receive less attention.

Furthermore, an early departure from the Commons would lead to Mr Martin, 63, losing the financial and other benefits of his £138,000-a-year post for the maximum possible time.

He has been involved in a series of expenses controversies himself and has claimed almost £45,000 of expenses on his constituency home in the last four years - despite enjoying a lavish grace-and-favour apartment.

One of Mr Martin's former aides, John Stonborough, has even spoken out to place the blame for the expenses fiasco on Mr Martin.

He said Mr Martin waged a 'reign of terror' in which he vetoed radical reform of the expenses system in a series of meetings and 'exploded with rage' when challenged about his own second home allowance claims.

Mr Stonborough told The Sunday Times that the Speaker took control of the rules on expenses and allegedly personally edited the key 2004 edition of the Green Book on parliamentary allowances.

The Mail on Sunday has been told Mr Martin has also lost the backing of the powerful Commons Commission which he chairs.

The Commission is in charge of MPs’ expenses and the overall administration of the Commons.

Of the five members of the Commission, four are said to agree Mr Martin should resign.

They are Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman, Labour elder statesman Sir Stuart Bell, Shadow Commons Leader Alan Duncan and Lib Dem MP Nick Harvey.

Ominously for Mr Martin, there were signs last night that he is losing support in his Scottish Labour heartland.

Allies in Glasgow who had defended him staunchly are said to now agree he has little option but to go.

Senior Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott said: ‘Leaving Michael Martin in charge of cleaning up expenses is like putting Fred Goodwin in charge of cleaning up banks.’

The race to succeed Mr Martin meanwhile was thrown open after most of the leading candidates found themselves caught up in the expenses row.

Favourites had included Tory MP Sir Alan Haselhurst, one of Mr Martin’s deputies.

He has claimed more than £140,000 in second-home allowances on his country home despite having no mortgage on it.

Tory MP Douglas Carswell is to table a Commons motion tomorrow calling for Mr Martin to go.

In an article for today’s Mail on Sunday, he says: ‘Not since the Civil War has our Parliament been so supine and spineless in the face of an overbearing, unchecked executive.

‘The removal of Mr Martin is an essential start.’

Today’s BPIX poll for The Mail on Sunday shows Mr Carswell has massive public support: A total of 54 per cent think the Speaker should resign. Only 13 per cent support him to stay.

What the MPs who tried to stop you seeing their expenses claimed:

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the following expenses claims have been made my MPs who opposed the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2007.

Julian Lewis: Wanted £6,000 for a wooden floor

Julian Lewis, the Shadow Minister, asked for £6,000 for a wooden floor at his second home but Commons officials ruled that the spending “could be seen as extravagant”.

Instead he was was given £4,870 towards it.

The MP for New Forest East also successfully claimed £2,369.75 for kitchen appliances including a £789 Bosch washer dryer and £119 for a wall-mounted trouser press.

He regularly claimed up to £1,200 a month for interest on the mortgage on the £400,000 London flat.

 MP Fraser Kemp

Fraser Kemp, a former government whip, made repeat purchases of household items within weeks of each other for his one-bedroom flat.

He bought 16 sheets in seven weeks and two DVD players in a month. He was turned down when he tried to claim for £1,699 for a TV.

The Houghton & Washington MP has since said the repeat purchases were made in 'error' and he will make repayments.

MP David Ruffley

Shadow home minister David Ruffley claimed £1,674 for a sofa but was refused £2,175 for a widescreen TV.

He received £4,748 for furniture and fittings when he 'flipped' his second home from London to his Bury St Edmunds constituency.


Mike Hall, a backbench MP for Labour serving the constituency of Weaver Vale, in Chesire, claimed nearly £15,000 in three years for his two-storey house in Kennington to be cleaned and for his clothes to be laundered and ironed.

Each month he claimed between £100 and £200 on 'cleaning' and a further £110 a month on dry cleaning, laundry and ironing.

 Joan Ryan

Former junior minister Joan Ryan spent thousands on her family home in Enfield, North London, by claiming it was her second home.

The Labour MP for Enfield claimed more than £4,500 for work including garden fence repairs and redecorating her living room.

She later applied for her flat in South London to be listed as her second home.

David Chaytor

David Chaytor, Labour MP for Bury North, has been suspended over allegations he claimed almost £13,000 in interest payments for a mortgage he had already paid off.

He has vowed to payback the money after saying that there had been an 'unforgiveable error in his accounting procedures'.

He learned of his suspension after flying back from a taxpayer-funded trip to Washington.

(left to right) Conservative MP Julian Lewis, Conservative MP David Ruffley, Labour MP David Clelland, Conservative MP David Maclean and Labour MP Fraser Kemp

David Maclean, backbench MP for the Tories claimed for maintenance and repairs to his farmhouse in Cumbria before selling it for £750,000. But he did not pay Capital Gains Tax after the sale because the property was classed as his main home.

It was classed as his second home by Commons officials because it was a requirement as his role as opposition chief whip, which he held until 2005, to designate his London home as his main residence.

MP expenses row

David Clelland, the Labour MP for Tyne Bridge, claimed the cost of 'buying out' his partner's stake in his London flat.

Using the Additional Costs Allowance he claimed £431 in legal costs and as a result of the financial transaction taxpayers contributed £198 a month towards his increased mortgage payments.

Greg Knight MP

Greg Knight, the backbench Conversative MP for East Yorkshire claimed £2,600 for repairs to his driveway at his second home as part of a £21,793 bill to taxpayers for maintenance and security.

Knight, who has a collection of classic cars, sent in itemised bills detailing the claims which included £120 to empty effluent from his septic tank.

 Liz Blackman

Liz Blackman, backbencher MP for Erewash went on last minute spending spree at the end of the financial year to ensure he claimed almost all of her allowances.

She purchased items in March 2005 including a £199 DVD player, and a £99 rug to bring her total from the end of the 2004/5 financial year £9 short of the maximum.

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