Election of Speaker

John Bercow Excerpts

Tuesday 18th May 2010 Commons Chamber

[John Bercow (Buckingham) (Ind)]

Thank you, Sir Peter, and welcome to your role as Father of the House. It was a privilege to serve as Speaker for the past 10 months and it would be an honour to serve again in this Parliament. I would discharge my duties impartially, not just between parties, but between individual Members. Above all, I would defend the rights of Back Benchers to hold the Government to account and to champion the causes dear to their hearts. For better or for worse, I have become known for insisting on short questions and short answers. Sometimes a short speech is also appropriate, so I shall leave it there in order to demonstrate that once in a while, at least, I do practise what I preach. Colleagues, thank you.

[Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Sir Peter. May I ask a procedural question? This is an extremely important time for this House and for its democratic future. We are in the process of electing a Speaker without having the opportunity of understanding or hearing what his views are on the long-term future of this House. May I therefore ask what safeguards are in place should the Speaker decide to change the constitution of our country, either to consolidate or indeed to stabilise the Opposition or his position? What are the criteria required to support any such moves, for example, the 55% provision that the Government wish to embrace—it is thereby known as the Mugabe question?

--- Later in debate ---

[Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)]

I should like to begin by congratulating the new Father of the House, and yourself, Mr Speaker-Elect, on your re-election. In my brief contribution, I want to highlight the fact that there is no longer a second, UK-wide Opposition party in this House. That underlines the point that it is the parties of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland that, together with the Labour Opposition, will take on much of the work of scrutiny— [Interruption.] I am grateful for their helpful support in this endeavour.

I want to put one last thing on record. It is important that we should remember that many people who served in this House with great distinction during the last Parliament were not re-elected or retired before the election. On behalf of all parties and all corners of this House, I want to put on record our appreciation for all the work performed by those MPs in the last Parliament.

We wish you every success, Mr Speaker-Elect, and we are pleased that you have reiterated the importance of hearing the voices from all parts of the House and all the nations of the UK.

[Mr Speaker-Elect]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that speech. He has set out very clearly for new Members how to take one’s opportunities at the outset of a new Parliament.

I do not know whether any other colleague wishes to contribute, but if none does so—

[Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker-Elect]

Mr David Blunkett.

[Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

On behalf of Back Benchers, Mr Speaker-Elect, I should like to congratulate you, and I should like to thank the Father of the House for reminding me that I was only 12 when he was elected to the House. That has made me feel a lot younger.

Mr Speaker-Elect, you held the Chair for 10 months in the last Parliament. We remember that, as you described this afternoon, you were even handed and fair to all major parties and between Members. You were also rigorous, so I shall be brief.

One of the things that you advocated and that was debated at length was the need for new politics. This House must be able to hold the Executive—the Government—to account more effectively. On many occasions with my own Government, you allowed to be called to the House through private notice questions Ministers who did not report to the House things that they had announced in public before the House had had a chance to meet. I hope that that continues, despite the fact that it would appear that three major constitutional announcements that relate to the House—to the voting system and the upper Chamber, on expenditure cuts and on changes to how the House might rid itself of a Government that no longer had the confidence of the House—all appear to have been made prior to Parliament convening next week. One of those announcements was made only 48 hours before it would have been possible for the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Chief Secretary to report directly to the House.

Mr Speaker-Elect, we look forward to you defending our interests as Back Benchers from whichever party, but we look forward most of all to your being able to reassert the ideas that were promoted before the last general election—that we should not be engaged in fixes and we should not have the old caballing, and that we should have open, honest, forthright debate and that parliamentarians should genuinely be able to hold this new coalition to account.

[Mr Speaker-Elect]

I am grateful to the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough, who has reminded me of my commitment to scrutiny and accountability, and I happily underline that commitment this afternoon.

In closing my remarks, I should like to reiterate what has already been said by others: namely, new Members deserve a huge welcome and every possible encouragement and exhortation to go about their business in the way that they think fit on behalf of their constituents.

Adjournment

Resolved, That this House do now adjourn until tomorrow at ten minutes past Three o’clock. —(Mr Dunne.)