Michael Martin (politician)
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The Right Honourable
Michael Martin MP |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 23 October 2000 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
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| Preceded by | Betty Boothroyd |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 3 May 1979 |
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| Preceded by | Richard Buchanan |
| Majority | 10,134 (35.7%) |
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| Born | 3 July 1945 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | (Independent) |
| Spouse | Mary Martin |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Michael John Martin MP (born 3 July 1945) is the current Speaker of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom.
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[edit] Early life
Martin was born in Glasgow in 1945, the son of a merchant seaman and a school cleaner. He attended St Patrick's Boys' School in Anderston, before leaving at the age of 15 to become an apprentice sheet-metal worker. He became involved in the Sheet Metal Workers trade union and joined the Labour Party when he was 21. He later worked in the Rolls-Royce plant at Hillington, and was an Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union shop steward from 1970 to 1974.
In 1973, Martin was elected as a Labour councillor on Glasgow Corporation, a position he retained until he was elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He also served as a trade union organiser with the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) between 1976 and 1979. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Glasgow Springburn in the 1979 general election, and was associated with the right wing of the party. He was a supporter of Roy Hattersley and Denis Healey, whom he served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary from 1980 until 1983.
[edit] Speakership
He served as Chairman of the Scottish Grand Committee from 1987 to 1997, and also sat on the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen. In 1997 he was appointed as First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Deputy Speaker). Martin was elected Speaker on 23 October 2000, succeeding Betty Boothroyd.
Martin's Glaswegian accent led to his being pejoratively nicknamed "Gorbals Mick" by Quentin Letts, after a well-known working-class district of Glasgow; however, the nickname is inaccurate, as Martin is from the Anderston and Springburn areas of Glasgow and has never lived in the Gorbals.
In the 2005 general election, he stood in the new constituency of Glasgow North East. There is an imperfectly observed convention that the UK main national parties (Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats) do not stand candidates against a Speaker who is seeking re-election, although other parties, including the Scottish National Party, have never observed this pact.
On 26 February 2006 it was announced that Martin had received treatment at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary for a heart condition and would be absent from his duties for some weeks.[1] He returned to the Chair on 18 April.
In an interview on the BBC's Politics Show on 11 February 2007, he said that his proudest achievement as Speaker, in the traditions of his working-class origins, was to establish an apprenticeship scheme for local young people to become craftsmen (upholsters, restorers, electricians, etc.) who maintain the fabric of the Houses of Parliament.
His son, Paul Martin, has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow Springburn constituency since 1999.
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Appointment
Martin's initial appointment as Speaker caused controversy as his election broke a recent trend whereby the post alternated between the two main political parties - presently the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. As Martin's immediate predecessor Betty Boothroyd was also a Labour MP, it was argued that the new Speaker should have come from the Conservative benches.[2] However, contrary to popular belief there is no tradition of party alternation in the Speakership: in fact, from the Act of Union in 1801 until 1992, every Speaker elected came from the benches of whichever party was in government at the time of transition (see List of Speakers of the British House of Commons) - a convention which had, by coincidence, led to alternate Labour and Conservative Speakers being elected between 1965 (Horace King, the first Speaker elected from the Labour Party) and 1983 (Bernard Weatherill). It was actually Betty Boothroyd's election as Speaker in 1992 (while the Conservatives were in office) which broke this convention, and the election of Martin merely reverted to previous tradition by selecting the Speaker from the government benches. If a party alternation system had been followed it is argued that the Conservative MP for North-West Hampshire Sir George Young might have become Speaker in 2000.
[edit] Accusations of bias
On 1 November 2006 during Prime Minister's Questions, Martin, in his role as Speaker, caused uproar in the House of Commons by striking down a question from David Cameron, leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in which he challenged Tony Blair over the future leadership of the Labour Party. Martin stated that the purpose of Prime Minister's Questions was for the House to question the Prime Minister on the actions of the government. This caused such dissent amongst MPs that Martin threatened to suspend the session. Cameron then re-worded the question so he asked about Tony Blair's future as Prime Minister rather than leader of the Labour Party, which Martin accepted. Conservative MPs have threatened to walk out if a similar event occurs in the future. Conservative politicians and commentators have sometimes accused Martin of bias towards the Labour government in stark contrast to the wide respect in which the previous Speaker, also a former Labour heavyweight, had been held across the political spectrum, although he does often reprimand Labour MPs as well.[3] [4]
[edit] Expenses
On 11 October 2007 Martin was criticised for spending more than £20,000 of taxpayers' money on lawyers to challenge negative press stories. Media lawyers Carter-Ruck were employed to represent him following articles querying his conduct. Martin was also criticised for the exemption of his wife, Mary, from security checks in the Palace of Westminster, where they live, and for trying to block the publication of details of MPs' £5m-a-year travel expenses under the Freedom of Information Act.[5]
More controversy followed in February 2008, when press sources reported that Martin used air miles accumulated on official business to fly his children and their families to London in business class. According to guidelines issued by the Members Estimate Committee, which Martin chairs, such air miles should be used by him to offset his own official travel costs.
On 24 February 2008, John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, was asked by the TaxPayers' Alliance to investigate whether Martin had abused parliamentary expenses and allowances. Lyon is obliged to examine all such complaints though the Commissioner could rule that the complaint is unfounded. This followed a week in which Martin's spokesman, the veteran Whitehall communications chief Mike Granatt, resigned after admitting that he had unwittingly misled the Mail on Sunday over more than £4,000 in taxi expenses incurred by the speaker's wife, Mary Martin. Granatt blamed unnamed officials, but not the Speaker, for falsely informing him that the expenses were legitimate because Martin's wife had been accompanied by an official on shopping trips to buy food for receptions. It turned out that she had in fact been accompanied by her housekeeper, and catering for such receptions is the responsibility of the parliamentary caterers.[6]
On 29 March 2008, the Daily Telegraph revealed that refurbishment of Michael Martin's home has cost the taxpayer £1.7m.[7]
[edit] Arrest of Damian Green
Following the highly controversial arrest of Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green, much anger is being directed towards Speaker Michael Martin and the House of Commons authorities for allowing police into the Palace of Westminster to search Mr Green's Commons office. Asked if Mr Martin had approved the move, a spokeswoman issued a terse statement, saying simply that: "There is a process to be followed and that was followed."[citation needed]
However, the Home Office confirmed that the police would have required permission from House authorities to carry out a search on the Commons premises. Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell said that if it were confirmed that Mr Martin had authorised the raid, which some say breached Parliamentary privilege, he would be demanding his resignation. "The purpose of the Commons Speaker is to preside over an institution that holds government to account - not to give the green light to police raids against legitimate opposition," he wrote on his blog.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4752898.stm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/986496.stm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/bb_rm_fs.stm?news=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nol_storyid=6106686
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/27/newsid_2502000/2502597.stm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7039994.stm
- ^ Nicholas Watt, "Pressure mounts on Speaker amid complaints over his expenses", The Guardian, 25 February 2008.
- ^ Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news - Telegraph
- ^ Carswell, Douglas (2008-11-28). "Douglas Carswell Blog - Speaker Martin sanctioned raid on opposition's office". http://www.talkcarswell.com/show.aspx?id=270.
[edit] External links
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Michael Martin MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Michael Martin MP
- Conservative MPs accuse Speaker of bias and threaten to walk out
- Pressure mounts on Speaker amid complaints over his expenses
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard Buchanan |
Member of Parliament for Glasgow Springburn 1979 – 2005 |
Succeeded by (constituency abolished) |
| Preceded by (new constituency) |
Member of Parliament for Glasgow North East 2005 – present |
Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Betty Boothroyd |
Speaker of the House of Commons 2000 – present |
Incumbent |
| Order of precedence in England and Wales | ||
| Preceded by The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP Prime Minister |
Gentlemen Speaker of the House of Commons |
Succeeded by The Rt Hon Lord Judge PC Lord Chief Justice |
| Order of precedence in Scotland | ||
| Preceded by The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP Prime Minister |
Gentlemen Speaker of the House of Commons |
Succeeded by The Rt Hon Alex Salmond MP MSP Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland |
| Order of precedence in Northern Ireland | ||
| Preceded by The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP Prime Minister |
Gentlemen Speaker of the House of Commons |
Succeeded by The Most Hon The Marquess of Cholmondeley KCVO Lord Great Chamberlain |
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