Commons Speaker says his deputies should no longer be selected by party whips

The Commons Speaker John Bercow has called for MPs to be able to elect his three deputy Speakers this autumn.

In a statement to MPs, he said that in a modern democracy it was unreasonable for the deputies to simply be selected by the party whips.

The proposal is one of a series of reforms promised by Bercow to make the Commons more democratic and accountable. He said that the elections would be held after the summer recess.

In his statement he said:“The house is served by three outstanding deputy Speakers. But my election was an indication that the house is ready to accept change. In a modern democracy that puts parliament first, I am convinced that the choice of such office holders should be determined not by consultation, but by the process of election.”

The current deputy Speakers, who chair Commons debates whenever the Speaker is absent, are Conservative MPs Sir Alan Haselhurst and Sir Michael Lord, and Labour’s Sylvia Heal.

Bercow said it was now vital to change the system in order to maintain the convention that two of the four MPs who sit in the Speaker’s chair are drawn from the governing party, with two others from the opposition. He said MPs should therefore elect two deputies from Labour and one from the Conservatives.

He also told MPs that the backlog of unanswered written ministerial questions must be cleared before the summer recess. A new system to track the time taken by ministers to answer questions would be set up in the autumn, he added.

Bercow was elected as Speaker last month after Michael Martin became the first Speaker to be ousted in 300 years following fierce criticism over his handling of the expenses scandal.

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