MPs to end centuries of self-regulation as Michael Martin quits

Gordon Brown tonight announced plans to end centuries of self-regulation by MPs on the day that Michael Martin became the first Speaker to be forced from office in 300 years.

Mr Martin will appear in the House of Commons later tonight to make a statement detailing plans to modernise politics, just hours after he told MPs that he would step down from his post by June 21 over the expenses scandal.

The Prime Minister said that the main party leaders had reached an agreement in principal over the introduction of an independent statutory body to oversee the rules governing MPs expenses and pay, among other agreements.
“Westminster cannot operate like some gentlemen’s club where the members make up the rules and operate them among themselves,” Mr Brown said, holding a press conference tonight. “I believe that the keystone of any reform must be to switch from self-regulation to independent external regulation.”

Mr Martin attended a meeting of the party leaders this afternoon, and it falls to him to read out the proposals to the House.

He is the first Speaker to be forced from office for more than 300 years but Mr Brown insisted that he had “a record of public service which he and his family should be proud”.

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."

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

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.

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.

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.

Source:The times