Michael Martin (politician)

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The Rt Hon. Michael Martin

Speaker of the House of Commons
In office 23 October 2000 – present
Preceded by	Betty Boothroyd
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Constituency	Glasgow North East
Majority	10,134 (35.7%)

Born	3 July 1945 Glasgow, Scotland
Political party	Labour
Religion	Roman Catholic

Michael John Martin MP (born 3 July 1945) is the current Speaker of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom.

1 Early life
2 Speakership
- 2.1 1 Nov 2006 Prime Minister's Questions
3 External links

[edit] Early life

Martin was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1945, the son of a merchant seaman and a school cleaner. He attended St. Patrick's Boys School in Anderston, before leaving at the age of 15 to become an apprentice sheet-metal worker. He became involved in the Sheet Metal Workers trade union and joined the Labour Party when he was 21. He later worked in the Rolls-Royce plant at Hillington, and was an AUEW shop steward from 1970 to 1974.

In 1973, Martin was elected as a councillor on Glasgow Corporation — a position he retained until he was elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He also served as a trade union organiser with the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) between 1976 and 1979. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Glasgow Springburn in the 1979 general election, and was associated with the right-wing of the party. He was a supporter of Roy Hattersley and Denis Healey, whom he served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary from 1980 until 1983.

[edit] Speakership

He served as Chairman of the Scottish Grand Committee from 1987 to 1997, and also sat on the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen. In 1997 he was appointed as First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Deputy Speaker). Martin was elected Speaker on 23 October 2000, succeeding Betty Boothroyd. He is the first Roman Catholic to hold the office of Speaker in either the Parliament of Great Britain or the Parliament of the United Kingdom. There was some controversy associated with his election in that the Speakership by convention is taken in turns by the two main parties. Labour opted not to observe this tradition when they elected Mr Martin Speaker, as the previous speaker had also been a Labour MP.

He has been an active Speaker, trying to raise the tone of debate in the Commons; he has on occasion, during Prime Minister's Questions, stopped the Prime Minister from criticising the policies of the opposition. Martin's strong Glaswegian accent led to his being nicknamed Gorbals Mick by some people from outside of Scotland, although the nickname is inaccurate, as Martin is from the Anderston and Springburn areas of Glasgow and has never lived in the Gorbals.

In the 2005 general election, he stood in the new constituency of Glasgow North East. There is an imperfectly-observed convention that the UK main national parties (Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats) do not stand candidates against a Speaker who is seeking re-election, although other parties, including the Scottish National Party, have never observed this pact.

On 26 February 2006 it was announced that Martin had received treatment at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary for a heart condition and would be absent from his duties for some weeks. [1] He returned to the Chair on 18 April.

In an interview on the BBC's Politics Show on 11 February 2007, he said that his proudest achievement as Speaker, in the traditions of his working-class origins, was to establish an apprenticeship scheme for local young people to become craftsmen (upholsters, restorers, electricians, etc) who maintain the fabric of the Houses of Parliament.

His son, Paul Martin, has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow Springburn constituency since 1999.

[edit] 1 Nov 2006 Prime Minister's Questions

On 1 November 2006 during Prime Minister's Questions, Michael Martin in his role as speaker caused uproar in the House of Commons by striking down a question from David Cameron, leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in which he challenged Tony Blair over the future leadership of the Labour Party. Martin stated that the purpose of Prime Minister's Questions was for the House to question the Prime Minister on the actions of the Government. This caused such dissent amongst MPs that Martin threatened to suspend the session. The next PMQs, however, Mr. Martin allowed the same question from Mr. Cameron, widely interpreted as an apology. Conservative MPs have threatened to walk out if a similar event occurs in the future. [2]

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Richard Buchanan	Member of Parliament for Glasgow Springburn 1979–2005	Succeeded by (constituency abolished)
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Glasgow North East 2005 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Betty Boothroyd	Speaker of the House of Commons 2000 – present	Incumbent
Order of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Rt. Hon. Mr. Tony Blair, MP	The Rt. Hon. Mr. Michael Martin, MPUnited Kingdom Order of Precedence Gentlemen	Succeeded by The Rt Hon. Mr. Jack Straw, MP, Leader of the House of Commons