The Wardman Wire

Today the House of Commons elects a new Speaker. A little while ago, when Michael Martin finally resigned, I wrote a post on the qualities that are needed in the new Speaker:

1. Non-partisan
2. Uncorrupted and uncorruptable
3. A parliamentarian
4. Independent and impartial
5. Professionalism
6. Public profile
7. A reformer

And who are the candidates?

• Margaret Beckett
• Sir Alan Beith
• John Bercow
• Sir Patrick Cormack
• Parmjit Dhanda
• Sir Alan Haselhurst
• Sir Michael Lord
• Richard Shepherd
• Ann Widdecombe
• Sir George Young

And how do they do?

Margaret Beckett

Beckett falls foul of the first quality – there is no way that she, as a former Labour Deputy Leader and senior Cabinet minister and as someone who only just left the government. She she certainly shouldn’t be Speaker.

Sir Alan Beith

He’s a Lib Dem and has absolutely no public profile – and thus falls foul of quality number 6. In this time of political turnoil, the public need to actually know who the speaker is. Not a chance.

John Bercow

Despite being a Tory MP, he is despised by many in his own party. Even though this doesn’t really fall under any of the qualities above, it would make Bercow entirely unable to do his job. In much the same way as it would have been impossible for Frank Field to be Speaker.

Sir Patrick Cormack

The main problem with Cormack is simply that he is too “safe” a candidate. He stood for election as Speaker in 2000, but lost to Michael Martin. Can he, really, as someone who has been an MP since 1970, really bring to necessary reform?

Parmjit Dhanda

What makes Dhanda unsuitable to be Speaker to me is his reason for standing – because the BNP won seats in the European Parliament. That is not a good enough reason, and the Speaker isn’t in a position to make any difference to that anyway. Only the way politicians address concerns and ultimately the voters themselves can control who gets elected.

Sir Alan Haselhurst

As an experienced Deputy Speaker, you would think that Haselhurst would be a shoe-in for the job. But MP expenses has damaged him: he claimed £12,000 for gardening, and so he falls foul of rule two as he is already viewed as corrupted. And, having been an MP since 1970 (though with a gap 1974-77) and a Deputy Speaker since 1997, how much of a reformer could he be?

Sir Michael Lord

Like Haselhurst, Lord is a experienced Deputy Speaker who otherwise would be very likely to win. But, also like Haselhurst, he is embroiled in the MP expenses scandal for claiming money for gardening – £8,000 this time. He has been an MP since 1983 and a Deputy Speaker since 1997 which also makes him an unlikely reformer.

Richard Shepherd

Like Haselhurst and Lord, Shepherd has been damaged by MP expenses for gardening claims – £6,223. Otherwise, as a former “Parliamentarian of the Year” he could have been a prime candidate.

Ann Widdecombe

Widdecombe is by far the best known of all the candidates, bar perhaps Beckett. She is known for her independence and plain-speaking common sense style – the public know her and like her.

Possibly the only downside to Widdecombe being Speaker is that she is standing down at the next election, but this could also be a positive as it means that she has no personal axe to grind and no benefits to make. And since a new Speaker will need to be elected after the election, she can take all the hard decisions necessary to clean up politics.

Sir George Young

Young’s only real problem is that he is an Old Etonian. And would it really be acceptable for the Prime Minister, Chancellor, and Speaker all to be Old Etonians after the next election? Also, as Chairman of Committee on Standards and Privileges since 2001, he has been in a position to influence Parliamentary reform for the better – but has he?

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So who should be the new Speaker? My choice would be Ann Widdecombe for the same reasons as recently espoused by Garbo:

[Widdecombe] is made for this role and will certainly be a stickler for the rules and bring back some credibility to the role. You wouldn’t want to be the backbencher who takes the full force of her wrath! And I also think she is the best qualified of all the candidates to clean up some of the mess that has been done by the expenses scandal. She is made for this role.

A message to all MPs: Vote Widdecombe!

She is fierce-willed, independently-minded, and commited to reform. With her as Speaker, reform would be nigh-on immediate and the role would regain the respect it has lost since Betty Boothroyd retired.

Widdecombe is the only one of the candidates with the will to make the necessary changes. She is the only one who carry out the role the Speaker needs to for now – strict, even harsh, disciplinary and (more likely than not) unpopular moves to reform the Commons.

That she is going to stand down at the next election means that she can get the necessary reforms – the harsh choices – made. And then the next Speaker after the general election can just take on the final tinkering.

Ann Widdecombe should be the next Speaker. If MPs do not elect her, they are idiots. After all, they get to vote for another Speaker in less than a year!