Besieged Speaker points finger at colleagues

SPEAKER Michael Martin is to ignore calls for his head this week and has instead launched a furious attack against his fellow MPs, who he believes are to blame for the expenses scandal.

The Glasgow MP has told friends he has no intention of quitting over the expenses affair, despite facing an unprecedented vote of no confidence this week from MPs who say his position is untenable.

Instead, Martin is going on the offensive, accusing his fellow MPs – including those on the Labour benches – of having "sabotaged" reforms to the expenses system which he proposed last year.

Senior Labour sources say that, such is Martin's anger at the way he believes he has been scapegoated, he may even carry on as Speaker after the next election. There are no rules to preventing him doing so.

In a sign that Martin is digging in, the Labour party in Glasgow North, Martin's seat, have not been told what his plans are, just 12 months before the likely date of the election.

But Martin is facing a chorus of calls to go this weekend, even from Labour allies in his west of Scotland stronghold. They fear that until he resigns, Parliament will be unable to show it has moved beyond the scandal.

The Speaker is said by friends to be "frustrated" that his own side of the story did not come across last week, when MPs of all parties accused him of failing to act. Allies are now pointing the finger at MPs – including Gordon Brown – who failed to support curbs to MPs' expenses this time last year.

Last July, Martin proposed reforms including an end to the second-home allowance and external audits for all expenses. The reforms would also have abolished the "John Lewis list" of household items and property improvements that MPs could claim for.

But in a free vote, MPs rejected the moves. Brown was among several ministers who failed to show up for the vote, amid accusations that Government whips had privately orchestrated its collapse.

One friend of Martin's said last night: "A lot of the people who are criticising him now sabotaged reforms when he proposed them. He put down various proposals last year but they were voted down, or in the case of Kate Hoey (the MP who criticised Martin last week], she wasn't even there to vote."

Friends say an "aggrieved" Martin is refusing to announce he is stepping down, reluctant to hand the media "a scalp". One friend, Labour MSP and peer Lord Foulkes said: "I can't see any way he will be going before the next election". Another ally said: "His view is – I'm not standing down over this because it's not my fault."

Martin's refusal to go has led to confusion within his Glasgow North constituency. One senior Labour figure said: "The local party has had no indication whatsoever about what he's going to do."

The pressure on Martin is likely to increase, with up to ten MPs from all the main parties, including at least two Labour colleagues, having signed a Commons motion calling for him to stand down.

One Scottish Labour MP said: "Michael has to go because it is clear that we can't draw a line under this until he has left. The majority of the Commons now want him to go. This could be Michael's last big sacrifice for the Commons and he loves the Commons."

The working-class hero not likely to go without a fight

THERE'S a joke that does the rounds in Glasgow Labour circles about the strength of Michael Martin's power base in his home patch. "You can't join the Labour party in Springburn. It's full." The Speaker of the House of Commons has long had his own area sewn up.

Mr Martin has drawn succour from that Glasgow stronghold as the criticism over his performance as Speaker has grown. He has long maintained to friends that the attacks are motivated in part by snobbish dislike among London metropolitan types for his Glasgow working-class roots.

But this weekend there are plenty of Labour people in his own city who are joining the chorus for him to go.

Despite his "Gorbals Mick" nickname, he was born in the Anderston area, to a merchant seaman and a school cleaner. His father, a heavy drinker, left his mark on the young man – Mr Martin is a teetotaller.

Leaving school at 15, he became an apprentice sheet-metal worker. At 21, he joined the Labour Party, soon became a councillor with the old Glasgow Corporation, and then, in 1979, was elected MP for Springburn.

When, in 2000, he became the first blue-collar worker (and Catholic) to ascend to the Speaker's chair, he was seen by Labour MPs as the very embodiment of their movement's prime cause.

But, say his critics, the pride in his roots comes with a prickliness and a sense of victimhood that have ensured justified complaints over his behaviour have become all too easily dismissed as part of the class war which has defined his life.

Mr Martin's own expense claims have been questioned: the 4,000 spent by his wife, Mary, on taxi fares; the air miles accumulated on official business used to fly his family up and down the country; the 1,400 spent on a chauffeur-driven car to get him around Glasgow.

More damaging, however, have been the accusations that he has failed properly to represent the Commons in the public interest. The arrest of Tory MP Damian Green prompted questions as to why he had allowed the police access to his parliamentary office.

Mr Martin is said this weekend to feel aggrieved at the way he has been cast as scapegoat, telling friends that he proposed reforms to the expenses system this time last year only for MPs to knock them back.

He can be expected to launch one last fightback before he goes.