The House of Commons must elect a Speaker at the beginning of each new parliamentary term after a general election — or after the death, retirement or resignation of the incumbent.
The process for electing a new Speaker are laid down in the House’s Standing Orders(the parliamentary rule book). A new system by exhaustive ballot was adopted in 2001, following recommendations made by the Commons Procedure Committee. It works as follows:
Once assembled, MPs go to the House of Lords where they receive a message from the monarch asking them to elect a new Speaker. They then return to the commons and begin the process under the direction of the Father of the House.
If the choice is made after a general election and the incumbent Speaker wishes to retain their post, the decision is taken immediately. In this instance, a vote is taken “by acclamation” (verbally). If the motion “that x do take the Chair of this House as Speaker” is challenged, the question is then subject to a division.
If there is no returning Speaker wishing to stand again — or the House votes against the incumbent Speaker — a contested election is held by exhaustive secret. MPs are asked to vote on the candidates who wish to take the chair as Speaker, with the candidate with the least votes eliminated at each stage until one MP emerges as victor. The final candidate standing is invited to take the chair.
The winning candidate then typically makes a short speech, followed by ones of congratulations from the party leaders.
The process is conducted by secret ballot and the multiple rounds of voting usually take place over one day. In 2009, candidates began addressing the House at 2:30pm, and John Bercow was elected Speaker after three rounds of voting at 8:30pm.
Who can stand?
Any MP can stand to be Speaker. Although, in practice, those successful in the process tend to be backbenchers who have never held a frontbench post. This is because the MP in question must convince the House that they can preside of commons business impartially.
A candidate must be nominated by at least 12 and no more than 15 MPs, including at least three elected to the House as members of a party other than the candidate’s or as members of no party.
Previous results
The current Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, was first elected to the role in November 2019 and was re-elected by the House after the 2019 general election in December.
The MP for Chorley was elected with 325 votes in the final ballot out of a total of 540 votes cast.
In the first ballot the votes received were as follows:
- Sir Lindsay Hoyle – 211
- Chris Bryant – 98
- Dame Eleanor Laing – 113
- Harriet Harman – 72
- Dame Rosie Winterton – 46
- Sir Edward Leigh – 12
- Meg Hillier – 10
Before Sir Lindsay, John Bercow was first elected on 22 June 2009 following the resignation of Speaker Martin amid the parliamentary expenses scandal. Mr Bercow was subsequently re-elected after the general elections in 2010, 2015 and 2017 on uncontested motions. He stepped down as Speaker on 31 October 2019.
In 2009, Mr Bercow was one of 10 MPs to put their name forward. The candidates in question took part in unofficial hustings, organised by the Hansard Society.
In the first ballot of 2009, the votes received were as follows:
- John Bercow – 179
- Sir George Young – 112
- Margaret Beckett – 74
- Alan Haselhurst – 66
- Sir Alan Beith – 55
- Ann Widdecombe – 44
- Parmjit Dhanda – 26
- Richard Shepherd – 15
- Patrick Cormack – 13
- Michael Lord – 9
How the system has changed
The present system was introduced in 2001. The last speaker election to be conducted under the old system took place in 2000 which saw Michael Martin selected.
Mr Martin’s election took place by means of a conventional parliamentary motion with recorded votes on an amendment for each candidate. The repeated ballots took nearly six hours witheach candidate allowed time to make their own speech of submission to the House.
How are the Deputy Speakers elected?
Deputy Speakers are elected using the single transferable vote system. The votes are allocated to ensure that two of the Deputy Speakers are from the opposite side of the House than that from which the Speaker was drawn.
The votes must also be allocated to ensure that, across the four posts of the Speaker and his deputies, there will be at least one man and at least one woman.
The candidate with the larger number of votes will become the Chairman of Ways and Means, the other the Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means.
