Tory MP calls on Speaker to quit

A Conservative MP has called for the Commons Speaker to set a date for his departure.

Backbencher Douglas Carswell said Michael Martin should be replaced by a candidate "who understands that there is a problem with Westminster politics".

The Harwich MP is the first to openly say that the Speaker should resign over the ongoing row over parliamentary expenses.

But Carswell argued that Martin was preventing the wider changes necessary to restore the Commons' reputation.

"We need to clean up Westminster politics and take action to restore faith in our political system," he wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

"First, Speaker Martin must step down. Perhaps not immediately, but he needs to set a date for his departure now.

"Second, MPs need to choose a Speaker who understands that there is a problem with Westminster politics - and is willing and able to see something done about it.

"Finally, we need to scrap the 'gentlemen's club' rules used to run our legislature, and make Westminster politicians much more directly accountable to the voters.

"Until Speaker Martin goes, we will make little progress with anything else."