MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

MP Green office raid: Commons Speaker increasingly exposed

Speaker Michael Martin

Britain's Commons Speaker Michael Martin is looking increasingly exposed amid deepening dismay among MPs over his failure to stop the police raid on the Westminster office of Tory frontbencher Damian Green.

On the eve of a crucial Commons debate on the whole episode, a BBC survey found that more than 30 backbench MPs - more than a third of those who responded - had now lost confidence in him. The findings came as more senior figures voiced their misgivings at his handling of the affair, while one former deputy speaker said that he should now stand down "with a degree of dignity". The survey, by Radio 4's The World This Weekend program, approached 130 backbench MPs of whom 90 took part. Of those, 32 said that they had lost confidence in Mr Martin while 50 said he was "culpable" for what had happened. Tory leader David Cameron said that he would like to have confidence in Mr Martin, but pointedly stopped short of saying that he actually had. "I want to have the confidence that we should all have in the Speaker's Office and in the Speaker and that needs to be put right," he told the BBC One Politics Show. Children's Secretary Ed Balls complained that it was not "sensible" for senior politicians to make such comments. "In the end, drip, drip, drip is undermining the office of the Speaker and the office of Parliament," he told the programme. However, he was drowned out by a chorus of senior backbenchers voicing dismay at the way Mr Martin had allowed police investigating leaks from the Home Office to search Mr Green's Commons office, even though they did not have a warrant. Tory former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said that the concerns were widely shared across Parliament. "I don't think I am being controversial in saying I don't think that Speaker Martin will go down as one of the great Speakers of the House of Commons," he said. Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said that it was "unfair" that the Serjeant at Arms Jill Pay had been left by Mr Martin to shoulder the responsibility for allowing the police in. However, the most scathing comments came from the former deputy speaker Michael Morris, now Lord Naseby, who said he was "amazed" that Mr Martin had not prevented the police entering. "Why the Speaker was not in lead role is something I find absolutely incomprehensible," he told The World This Weekend. "I don't think that it is for the members to necessarily put down a motion of no confidence, because that is a very drastic stage, but I think he needs to reflect on his position frankly. In my judgment he has let the House of Commons down".