Huhne joins chorus for Martin to step down
By politics.co.uk staff
Chris Huhne yesterday condemned Michael Martin’s poor handling of the expenses row and became the latest MP to join in calls for the Speaker to step down from his role.
Speaking to the BBC, the Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesman said: “I think Michael Martin will have to go. I don’t think he’s the right person to do this job.”
A motion of no confidence in the Speaker is to be tabled by Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell over the growing opinion that Martin has not been able to handle the expenses row adequately.
“Whatever his virtues in the past, the truth is we need new leadership to make sure we grapple with this issue,” Mr Huhne said. “I think that the Speaker needs to be a reformer who’s going to be determined to sweep the stables clean.”
Mr Martin, presiding officer of the House of Commons since 2000, has been criticised for his decision to ask the police to investigate where the leak came from rather than dealing with the public anger.
Mr Martin’s angry outbursts at Mr Baker and Labour MP Kate Hoey on Monday appear to have precipitated his fall, with his criticism of the MPs questions demonstrating an underestimation of public anger at the expenses scandal.
“I hear your public utterances and your pearls of wisdom on Sky News. It’s easy to talk then,” he told Ms Hoey.
A day later he refused to retract the attack.
When asked by Labour MP David Winnick whether he would apologise, he said: “I don’t think the honourable gentleman was in the Chamber yesterday.
“That was the business of yesterday.”
Mr Winnick retorted that the answer was “not adequate”, to which Mr Martin replied: “If it’s not adequate then the honourable gentleman knows what he must do then.”
That comment was interpreted as an invitation to put down a vote of no confidence.
Tony McNulty, employment minister, was the first minister to publicly criticise the Speaker over his handling of the questions, saying: “I thought he was a bit heavy-handed with Kate Hoey and Norman Baker – unusually so for him, to be fair.”
Ministers and senior MPs were said to be lining up to privately tell the Speaker he had lost the confidence of parliament yesterday.
“Speaker Martin is not the right man to have at the helm,” Mr Prentice told the BBC.
“He is too compromised.
“It is a question of competence and acting fairly and in a non-partisan manner.”
Mr Martin has previously come in for criticism over his wife’s £4000 taxi bill and his handling of the constitutional crisis triggered by the arrest of shadow immigration minister Damian Green.
