Bercow goes on the offensive
By politics.co.uk staff
New Speaker John Bercow has launched a major attempt to live up to the hype surrounding his election, by making a radical move to make parliament more transparent.
Speaking in the Commons today, he announced he would act to make all three of his deputies elected, in much the same way he was.
There will be a ballot of one from the opposition benches and two from the government benches.
Mr Bercow said he would aim to accomplish the task in October.
He also lambasted ministers for failing to answer written parliamentary questions in a “timely manner”.
“Such questions and the timely answers to them are an important means by which this House holds the government of the day to account,” he said.
Mr Bercow said he had written to ministers and demanded they clear the backlog before the summer recess.
The new Speaker, who was elected after a series of three anonymous ballots, wants to maintain the momentum of his win to take power away from party whips, who previously selected the deputy Speakers.
The new rules could come into place after the summer recess.
