Margaret Beckett, the former Foreign Secretary, remains the favourite to be elected as the new House of Commons Speaker today, despite a backlash over reports that Labour whips have been actively recruiting support for her.

The Labour MP Stephen Pound warned that the whips' behaviour was a sign that MPs had failed to understand the need to radically reform parliament.

He said: “There is a lot of skulduggery going on... it is a depressing example of MPs looking inwards to their own advantage when we really should be looking outwards," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Nine other candidates are hoping to succeed Michael Martin as Speaker, including the veteran Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe, Deputy Speaker Sir Alan Haselhurst, Labour MP Parmjit Dhanda and John Bercow, the liberal-leaning Tory MP.

Martin became the first Speaker to be ousted since Sir John Trevor in 1695 after fierce criticism of his handling of the expenses scandal.

Until recently it had been thought that most Labour MPs would support Bercow, who is widely respected within Parliament but is viewed as an unreliable maverick by many Conservatives. Many also believed that it was unreasonable to have a third Labour Speaker following Betty Boothroyd and Martin.

But the revelation that Labour whips have been instructing MPs to vote for Beckett undermines ministers' claims that in choosing a new Speaker the party would set aside partisan interests.

Speaking yesterday, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said: “We've got to put partisan interests aside and elect a Speaker who is best placed to lead the House of Commons to a restored position of authority and trust.”

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, called for a “people's Speaker” to lead radical parliamentary reform.

He said: “Even if we get the best speaker in the world, he or she is really going to have their work cut out.

“The vested interests at Westminster are already manoeuvring to water down reform.”

A number of Conservative MPs are reportedly set to back Beckett in a bid to prevent Bercow's election, with some hoping to switch their support to Sir George Young, the Conservative chairman of the standards and privileges committee, in the final round of voting.

For the first time the new Speaker will be elected through a secret ballot, with candidates successively eliminated until one person gains an overall majority.