The Speaker of the House of Commons: The Office and Its Holders since 1945 Matthew William Laban Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 1 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I, Matthew William Laban, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of this thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Date: Details of collaboration and publications: Laban, Matthew, Mr Speaker: The Office and the Individuals since 1945, (London, 2013). 2 ABSTRACT The post-war period has witnessed the Speakership of the House of Commons evolving from an important internal parliamentary office into one of the most recognised public roles in British political life. This historic office has not, however, been examined in any detail since Philip Laundy’s seminal work entitled The Office of Speaker published in 1964. This thesis updates Laundy’s work and brings the examination of the Speakership right up to the election of John Bercow as Speaker in June 2009. The manner by which the Speaker is elected and how this process has changed since 1945 is explored as is the way in which a Speaker contests a general election if he or she wishes to remain in office for longer than one parliamentary session. The powers and responsibilities of the Speaker are identified and the way in which these have changed and developed are discussed. Each of the post-war Speakers is examined to see what his or her personal contribution has been to the ongoing development of the office. The thesis concludes with an analysis of how the Speakership is viewed today compared with the start of the period. The office has always been held in high esteem by fellow parliamentarians but now it enjoys similar recognition by the wider general public thanks to the introduction of radio and television broadcasting of the House of Commons. Whilst the task of chairing the debates in the chamber remains the same, a modern Speaker must also rise to the challenge of being a skilled administrator, diplomat and media personality. 3 CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION THE SPEAKERSHIP OF THE HOUSE 5 OF COMMONS: A PRE-EMINENT BUT UNDER-STUDIED PARLIAMENTARY OFFICE CHAPTER 1 DIVISIONS AND BALLOTS: ELECTING 21 AND RE-ELECTING A SPEAKER CHAPTER 2 IN AND OUT OF THE CHAIR: THE 56 SPEAKER’S POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE COMMONS CHAMBER CHAPTER 3 THE EARLY POST-WAR SPEAKERS: THE 88 SPEAKERSHIPS OF COLONEL DOUGLAS CLIFTON BROWN (1943-1951) AND WILLIAM SHEPHERD MORRISON (1951-1959) CHAPTER 4 THE QUIET SPEAKERSHIPS: THE 115 SPEAKERSHIPS OF SIR HARRY HYLTON-FOSTER (1959-1965) AND DR HORACE KING (1965-1971) CHAPTER 5 THE SPEAKERSHIP IN A TOUGH 137 CLIMATE: THE SPEAKERSHIPS OF SELWYN LLOYD (1971-1976) AND GEORGE THOMAS (1976-1983) CHAPTER 6 THE MODERN SPEAKERSHIP: THE 179 SPEAKERSHIPS OF BERNARD (JACK) WEATHERILL (1983-1992) AND BETTY BOOTHROYD (1992-2000) CHAPTER 7 THE SHOP STEWARD SPEAKER: THE 225 SPEAKERSHIP OF MICHAEL MARTIN (2000-2009) CONCLUSION THE EVOLUTION OF AN ANCIENT 256 OFFICE: HOW THE OFFICE OF SPEAKER HAS CHANGED IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD BIBLIOGRAPHY 273 4 INTRODUCTION THE SPEAKERSHIP OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS: A PRE-EMINENT BUT UNDER-STUDIED PARLIAMENTARY OFFICE Excepting only the Sovereign herself, no personage throughout the structure of British parliamentary government occupies a higher pinnacle of prestige than the Speaker of the House of Commons. Philip Laundy, author of The Office of Speaker, 1964.1 I suppose that there is much more interest in the relative success of various political forces in relation to the exercise of executive power than in the story of Parliament’s effectiveness in holding Executives to account. Former Clerk of the House of Commons, Sir Clifford Boulton, 2001.2 Despite being one of the most high profile positions in British political life, the Speakership of the House of Commons is a parliamentary office which has received very little academic attention during the post-war period. Moreover, the Speaker of the House of Commons is one of the oldest public offices in the United Kingdom and can trace its origins to 1258 when Peter de Montfort presided over ‘The Mad Parliament’ of that year. It was not until 1376, however, that Peter de la Mare was elected as Parliament’s first official spokesman and in 1377 Sir Thomas Hungerford was the first person to be given the title of Speaker.3 The office’s prestige and status is reflected by the fact that the Speaker now ranks seventh in the official order of precedence after the Queen and the Royal Family.4 Although the Speakership is an ancient and important office, very little research has been written on the subject and there is, in certain areas, a scarcity of primary material. The aim of this chapter is to examine what academic work has been undertaken on the post-war Speakership, what primary sources exist and 1 Philip Laundy, The Office of Speaker, (London: Cassell, 1964), p. 7. 2 Letter from Sir Clifford Boulton , 19 March 2001. 3 See Philip Laundy, The Office of Speaker in the Parliaments of the Commonwealth, (London: Quiller Press, 1984), pp. 12-13. 4 See Laundy, The Office of Speaker, p. 8. 5 finally the topics that need to be covered and the questions posed in order to produce a study that looks at the office of Speaker and where it sits in the much wider context of parliamentary post-war history. This thesis will cover the Speakerships of the following occupants of the Chair: Speaker Political Party Period in the Chair Colonel Douglas Clifton Brown Conservative 1943 - 1951 William Shepherd Morrison Conservative 1951 - 1959 Sir Harry Hylton-Foster Conservative 1959 - 1965 Dr Horace King Labour 1965 - 1971 Selwyn Lloyd Conservative 1971 - 1976 George Thomas Labour 1976 - 1983 Bernard Weatherill Conservative 1983 - 1992 Betty Boothroyd Labour 1992 - 2000 Michael Martin Labour 2000 - 2009 It will end with the election of John Bercow, the Conservative MP for Buckingham, as Speaker on 22 June 2009. Existing literature The only general pieces of research that have been conducted on the office of Speaker since the Second World War have been written by one of the former clerks to the Canadian Parliament, Philip Laundy. Two books have been written by Laundy; The Office of Speaker, which was published in 1964, and The Office of Speaker in the Parliaments of the Commonwealth, which was published in 1984.5 There is also a piece by Laundy entitled ‘The Office of Speaker in the Twentieth Century’, in a Study of Parliament Group volume called The House of Commons in the Twentieth Century, 5 Laundy, The Office of Speaker & Laundy, The Office of Speaker in the Parliaments of the Commonwealth. 6 edited by S. A. Walkland and published in 1979.6 Laundy’s first book is most definitely the seminal work on this topic. However, it was published nearly fifty years ago with the two later publications both being more than twenty-five years old. Laundy’s works do not cover the Speakerships of Bernard Weatherill, Betty Boothroyd or Michael Martin and his coverage of the Speakerships of Dr Horace King, Selwyn Lloyd and George Thomas are only brief as they are part of a much wider looking analysis of the Speakership throughout the Parliaments of the Commonwealth. In 1946, the Hansard Society published a pamphlet called The Speaker of the House of Commons which was written by P. M. Briers.7 This very short booklet explains the election of a Speaker and describes his duties and powers. Thanks to its brevity, this small book gives only a limited insight into the office of Speaker at the very beginning of the post-war period. A very thin book entitled Speakers and the Speakership and edited by Paul Seaward was published in 2010 for The Parliamentary Year Book Trust.8 This book is made up of a collection of essays covering the entire history of the Speakership since the Middle Ages and the only chapter relevant to the post-war period is the one written by Baroness Boothroyd. This chapter only covers Boothroyd’s tenure as Speaker and is not an analysis of developments since 1945. Only three of the post-war Westminster Speakers have published written personal accounts of their time in the Chair: Selwyn Lloyd, George Thomas and Betty Boothroyd.9 These books are crucial to the understanding of the execution and development of the post-war Speakership because they give the insight of those who have held the office. Lloyd’s book gives an analysis of the history and responsibilities of the office of Speaker whereas Thomas and Boothroyd only really write about their 6 Philip Laundy, ‘The Speaker and his Office in the Twentieth Century’ in S. A. Walkland (ed.), The House of Commons in the Twentieth Century, (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1979).