29 April: The Speaker of the House of Commons

On this date in 1376, the first Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Peter de la Mare, took office. 10 things you might not know about the Speaker:

1. The office of Speaker has been around almost as long as Parliament itself, although the first people to hold an equivalent role were known as the parlour or prolocutor. The first of these was Peter de Montfort in 1258. The office as we know it today dates from 1376 and the first person to hold it was Sir Peter de la Mare.
2. What does the Speaker do? In a nutshell, they are the chief officer and highest authority of the House of Commons. They preside over debates, deciding who should be next to speak. Convention dictates that they alternate between the government and the opposition. No MP can make a speech without the Speaker's permission. They are responsible for maintaining order, which they do, initially, by shouting "Order! Order!" and have the power to suspend any MP for the rest of the day's proceedings if they don't comply. Part of their role sounds rather like a game of Just a Minute – they can order an MP to stop speaking if they make irrelevant remarks, are tediously repetitive, or deliberately trying to delay proceedings.
3. While they preside over debates, they don't take part in them. On election as speaker, although they are still an MP and will still do constituency work, they renounce their party affiliation. They don't make speeches and they don't vote unless there's a tie and a casting vote is required. Even then, they wouldn't vote according to their personal preference, but by convention for further debate or to retain the status quo. There is a mechanism in place whereby a deputy speaker from the opposite party doesn't vote, either, so neither side benefits or loses out from this.
4. The Speaker has three deputies, who, like the Speaker themselves, are elected by the House. The most senior deputy is also called Chairman of Ways and Means, which originated from a now defunct Ways and Means Committee which could amend and expedite bills to tax. While the deputies are usually there to take the chair if the Speaker is on holiday, sick, or the proceedings go on for longer than his or her usual hours, there is one occasion when the Chairman of Ways and Means always presides, and that is during the Budget speech.
5. Until 1992, the Speaker was always addressed as "Mr. Speaker" and their deputies as "Mr Deputy Speaker". In 1992, Betty Boothroyd, the first woman Speaker, was appointed and asked to be addressed as "Madam Speaker". She was not, however, the first woman to sit in the Speaker's Chair. That was Betty Harvie Anderson, who was a Deputy Speaker in the 1970s. he was addressed as "Mr Deputy Speaker".
6. The Speaker's traditional dress while on duty was court dress—a Black coat with White shirt and bands, beneath a black gown, with stockings and buckled Shoes, and a full-bottomed wig. Betty Boothroyd, however, decided not to wear the wig although she wore the rest of it. Michael Martin, also declined to wear the wig and also the buckled shoes and silk stockings. John Bercow abandoned the traditional dress altogether, opting to wear a plain black gown over his lounge suit as does the incumbent at time of writing, Sir Lindsay Hoyle. Nevertheless, he has said he will wear the full regalia on ceremonial occasions like the State Opening of Parliament. However, this will be minus the wig, which has gone missing.
7. As well as the right to live in Speaker's House at the Palace of Westminster, another perk of the job is that the Speaker gets their own state coach. It's the oldest of the three great State Coaches of the United Kingdom, originally designed for King William III in 1698 by Daniel Marot. Queen Anne passed it on to the Speaker. However, it doesn't get used for commutes to and from the constituency or for trips to the supermarket. It's usually only used on super-special occasions like coronations. The last time it got an airing was in 1981, for Prince Charles's wedding to Lady Diana Spencer.
8. When a Speaker resigns or retires a new one must be elected. Candidates must be nominated by at least twelve MPs, at least three of which must be from a different party from the candidate. If there is more than one candidate, a secret ballot is held. To get the job, a candidate must get at least 50% of the vote. If no-one does, then the candidate with the fewest votes, and/or any receiving less than 5%, drops out and the vote is held again until one candidate achieves the required majority.
9. By custom, the person elected, (despite having put themselves forward and actively campaigned to be voted in) must show reluctance to accept the post and be "dragged unwillingly" by MPs to the speaker's bench. This originates from the Speaker's original role of communicating the decisions of the Commons to the monarch, which in olden days could potentially get them executed if the monarch didn't like what they were told. That said, no Speaker has ever been executed for doing their job. Six Speakers were executed through the course of history, but usually long after they'd stepped down.
10. Over 150 individuals have served as Speaker of the House of Commons. Their names are inscribed in gold leaf around the upper walls of Room C of the House of Commons Library. Betty Boothroyd was the first woman; Michael Martin, elected in 2000, was the first Catholic speaker since the Reformation; and John Bercow, elected in 2009, was the first Jewish speaker.

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