Lords’ speaker election begins
Members of the House of Lords have today begun voting to elect a speaker of the House for the first time.
It follows reform of the post of lord chancellor, who until now was responsible for overseeing debates, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
Nine peers are in the running for the new £101,000-a-year role as lord speaker who, unlike the lord chancellor, will also chair the committee of the whole house – where all peers discuss a bill together.
The lord speaker will not, however, have the power to call the House to order or decided who can speak like his counterpart in the Commons, but will be confined to offering procedural advice during debates.
Lord Elton, one of the Conservative candidates for the role, agreed that the lord speaker’s powers should be limited.
“The power of the speaker in the chamber is virtually non-existent. He is necessary to keep the thing moving smoothly but woe betide a speaker who tries to assert authority,” he told Today.
Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, however, said the new role of speaker would have to change over time.
“Once you have a changed House you may find that you have to have a speaker who is going to be somewhat more proactive,” she told the same programme.
Alongside Lord Elton, other Conservative candidates for the post include Lord Viscount Ullswater, whose grandfather James Lowther was a speaker in the Commons, and former Conservative MP Baroness Fookes.
Labour life peer Baroness Hayman, chairwoman of the Human Tissue Authority, and former Labour leader in the upper House, Lord Richard, are also standing for the post.
The Countess of Mar, a cross-bencher who was one of the 92 hereditary peers who remained in the upper House following Labour’s reforms, and life peer Lord Grenfell are the independent candidates.
Lord Redesdale, the youngest ever life peer and the Lib Dems’ spokesman in the Lords, is the only Lib Dem standing for the post.
The new speaker, who will serve a five-year term and can serve no more than two terms, will be named on July 4th.
