Life story: The controversial speaker
Lord Martin of Springburn, who has died aged 72, was the 156th Speaker of the House of Commons, and the first since 1695 to be forced from office; he resigned in May 2009 facing a no-confidence motion over his handling of the MPs’ expenses scandal.
A Glaswegian former sheet metal worker, Michael Martin was a highly controversial occupant of the Speaker’s chair. He overcame misgivings over his impartiality – if not, entirely, his competence – but his nine-year tenure was marred by a high turnover among his staff, and latterly by his own sizeable claims for expenses.
When The Daily Telegraph began disclosing the hefty sums some MPs had secured from the Fees Office – for which the Speaker was responsible – for mortgages already paid off, lavish furnishings, and even cleaning out a moat, Martin circled the wagons. He launched a personal attack in the House on two members who suggested his priority should be reforming the system, rather than prosecuting whoever had leaked the data.
With the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg openly saying he should go, Martin made a statement apologising for the way Parliament had let the nation down – but to widespread dismay did not announce his retirement at the next election. When several backbenchers urged him to quit, and warned that a no-confidence motion would be tabled, he told them it would not be debated unless the Government brought it forward.
Martin now appeared an obstacle to change, rather than the instrument for achieving it. Overnight, 23 MPs signed the motion, and after prime minister Gordon Brown told him his position was untenable, Martin told the House on May 20, 2009, that he would retire in a month ‘‘in order that unity can be maintained’’.
Martin seldom looked at ease as Speaker; his manner was that of a pope delivering a homily in a language not his own. It was his misfortune to succeed the colourful and media-savvy Betty Boothroyd, and to be elected by an overwhelmingly Labour House in preference to popular Opposition figures.
After early wobbles, he showed himself determined to maintain the integrity of the Commons and bring to heel publicity-seeking ministers who made announcements elsewhere. Some of his decisions inevitably aroused protest, such as his ruling in 2004 that the Parliament Act could be used to override the Lords’ opposition to the hard-fought legislation to ban foxhunting. He upset parliamentary journalists by ending the system under which they received copies of ministerial statements as they were made, instead of afterwards.
A Glasgow MP for three decades and the first Roman Catholic Speaker for 450 years, Martin, who passed his first O-level at 42, had to live down the epithet of ‘‘Gorbals Mick’’ bestowed on him by sketchwriters.
A shy man who could over-compensate with gruffness, he was less successful than some Speakers in keeping his views to himself. His Springburn constituency had its problems. In 1984 he warned that heroin addicts were inundating local hospitals, and complained that inadequate precautions had led to 14 constituents contracting legionnaires’ disease. Glasgow’s high death rate from cancer made him an early campaigner over passive smoking, and after attacks on local children he supported legislation to curb dangerous dogs.
Away from the chair, Martin started on a contentious note, sacking his diary secretary, Charlotte Every, for not showing him proper respect; supporters of the privately educated Every said she had been branded ‘‘too posh’’ and a crypto-Tory.
When Major General Peter Grant Peterkin retired as Serjeant-at-Arms in 2007, forced out by Martin after embarrassing breaches of security, the Speaker broke new ground by appointing Jill Pay, a parliamentary official with no military background. The Queen did not take kindly to the innovation.
Controversy over Martin’s own use of public money began when the former Independent MP Martin Bell complained that the Speaker had claimed £20,000 a year for a London home despite living over the shop (he let out his Pimlico flat and donated much of the rent to the homeless), and that his wife was paid for constituency work she was not undertaking. After it was revealed that she had claimed £4000 for using taxis in London, Martin’s spokesman, Mike Granatt, resigned, saying he had been given misleading information. Martin had also used air miles collected on official business to pay for business-class travel for members of his family, rather than saving them to offset his own travel costs.
Early in 2008 it emerged that he had claimed up to £75,000 in ‘‘second home’’ expenses for his house in Glasgow, which doubled as his constituency office. Although it was unmortgaged, and the allowance was largely intended to meet mortgage payments, the claim was within the rules.
As disclosures about the misuse of allowances by others grew, Martin found himself chairing the working party to recommend changes, just as his own expenses were in the spotlight.
Martin was born in Glasgow, the son of Michael Martin, a merchant seaman, and his wife Mary, a school cleaner. He left school at
15 to become an apprentice sheet metal worker, and from 1970 was an engineering union shop steward. He was elected MP for Springburn in 1979.
There was little controversy when he moved up in 1997 to be Boothroyd’s deputy. Only when she decided to retire in October
2000 did doubts about his suitability surface. Martin married Mary McLay in 1966. She and their son and daughter survive him. – Telegraph Group
Martin seldom looked at ease as Speaker; his manner was that of a pope delivering a homily in a language not his own.