The election of Speaker of the House of Commons took on an air of unusual importance on Monday as ten hopefuls entered the race to be the ‘reforming speaker' who would wrestle power back from the executive to parliament and crucially re-connect the House of Commons to the British people.

The election began with all ten speaking briefly to a packed Commons chaired by the ‘Father of the House’ Alan Williams. The Prime Minister listened intently as Margaret Beckett the Labour ‘ex everything’ (she has held more Cabinet posts than almost anyone else and was briefly Leader of the Labour Party) and the choice of the Labour Whips kicked off proceedings. Gordon quickly lost interest when she finished, instead pouring over a pile of papers. After six minutes she gave way to the Conservative grandee and ex-Etonian, Sir George Young – the first of six Knights of the Realm bidding for the top job on a ticket of radical change!

Speeches were thankfully brief, usually insightful, sometimes humorous and often frightfully worthy. None more so than my favourite backbencher Sir Patrick Cormack who treated us to a ‘Pickwickian’ performance of benign pomposity even claiming to have been present in the Chamber in the 17th century! Three contenders spoke without notes – including the evergreen Ann Widdicombe who promised to stay in the job until the next election, Richard Shepherd who was so passionate many thought he would breakdown in tears, and the House’s most remarkable debater John Bercow.

Few candidates raise such polarised opinions as Mr Bercow who arrived in Parliament in 1997 as an unashamed ‘right winger’ but following marriage and children has transformed himself into one of the most effective social liberal campaigners in the House. His speech – referring to the age of previous speakers, their destiny (Sir Thomas Moore was beheaded but then canonised!) was without doubt the wittiest. Loved by Labour MP’s and loathed by his own Party in equal measure just how ‘Speaker Bercow’ would have united the House was an intriguing question.

The only Liberal Democrat in the race, Sir Alan Beith delivered his usual high quality thoughtful contribution as did the two Deputy Speakers Sir Alan Hazelhurst and Sir Michael Lord; the latter of whom just managed to slip in that he was a former British Lion who took on the South Africans and lost! The final contender was the Gloucester MP Parmjit Dhanda who sought to win support by abolishing almost everything – not a sensible move for such an inherently conservative institution – turkeys very rarely vote for Christmas!

It took an hour to count the 594 ballot papers – as some wag remarked ‘ten Parish Council elections could have been counted by now!’. The news that four candidates had not reached the 5% threshold was hardly surprising but the remainder refused to concede despite the fact that only Bercow with 179 votes (%) and Young with 112 (%) had reached three figures.

The drama continued following the second ballot as Bercow and Young extended their lead over other candidates who gracefully, following a plea from the Father of the House (whose bedtime was approaching), agreed to stand aside. With Beckett, Beith, Hazelhurst and Widdicombe out of the way the scene was set for a final showdown and with their 173 votes to distribute the result could have gone either way.

Tension grew as six hours after the process began the result was announced – and with 322 votes and a 46 member majority, John Bercow was announced as the 157th ‘Speaker Elect’. In customary fashion he was dragged to the Speaker’s Chair by his supporters – dragged because in the past being Speaker was a somewhat precarious profession with a number ending their term on the scaffold! The majority of members stood to applaud one of the youngest and most controversial speakers ever elected and of course the first Jewish speaker ever to take the office.

But the drama did not end there – the Queen had now to be consulted to see if she approved of the appointment and given the lateness of the hour could permission be granted before bedtime at the Palace? At 9.45pm the Lords Commissioners led by the Lord Chancellor, none other than Rt Hon Jack Straw the Justice Secretary, sent for Speaker Elect Bercow to read out Her Majesty’s Royal Approbation; and so the new Speaker was in place.

The first test of whether he was up to the mark came at Prime Minster’s Questions on Wednesday when No10 on the Order Paper was the Hon Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough! Had I not been called then calls to bring back Michael Martin might have been heard but such was the urgency to get through questions no such problem occurred and so Speaker Bercow passed his first test with flying colours!

15/06/09, Harrogate Advertiser