Michael Martin, the Speaker of the British House of Commons, is to be told by senior ruling Labour Party figures that he must stand down by the next general election or risk a humiliating “mess” over the Members of Parliament (MPs) expenses scandal.
The dramatic change of mood comes as the Guardian newspaper learned on Wednesday that Martin, who led the fight to prevent the publication of MPs’ expenses, has been using an obscure legal device to block further requests for information about the work of MPs — including apparently innocuous inquiries such as one about the all-party group on the wood panel industry.
After a day of heated exchanges in the Commons over the best way to clean up Westminister’s expenses regime, ministers and senior MPs were lining up to tell the Speaker in private that he has lost the confidence of parliament.
“It is sad and it is painful,” one minister, who has been a supporter of Martin, said. “But we are going to have to tell Michael that he must indicate that he will stand down at the next election or it will all dissolve into a terrible mess.”
Heather Brooke, who led the campaign to release information about MPs’ expenses, said yesterday that the Speaker was resorting to a little-known procedure, known as the “grenade clause,” to block further requests for information about the work of MPs.
Brooke spoke out yesterday after the Commons authorities used a clause in the 2000 Freedom of Information Act to block the release of information on, among others, a new all-party group on the wood panel industry. They said section 34 of the act gave them the right to block the release of information if it is “an infringement of the privileges of either house of parliament.”
The authorities said this applied in the case of the wood panel group as the request would “interfere with the functioning” of the registrar of members’ interests. MPs on the group would have registered any links to the wood panel industry.
Martin also intervened personally last month to sign a certificate blocking any information on rules governing overseas trips for MPs paid for by the British Council. There is no appeal, either by the likes of Brooke or even the statutory information commissioner, against the Speaker’s certificate.
Brooke said: “They are battening down the hatches. Rather than concede they seem to be in full defense mode. This is a last-ditch attempt to maintain this feudal culture of secrecy. It is the wood panel industry group. It’s not like it is going to topple parliament ... unless it is made of wood panel.”
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