'Speaker has no authority and has to go'
A Conservative MP today launched the first move in his bid to oust Commons Speaker Michael Martin who he accused of failing to stop police raiding the parliamentary office of Damian Green.
Backbencher Richard Bacon was due to consult hundreds of his colleagues over Mr Martin's future. He said: "The central question is the authority of the Speaker and I'm not sure he has any authority at the moment.
"If he does not have any authority, there is no point in him carrying on." Mr Bacon will seek a meeting today with the Speaker to demand an explanation over why officers were able to search Mr Green's Commons office.
He was also planning to distribute copies of an article he has written over the furore which he predicts may result in a "string of resignations".
Mr Bacon, who sits on the public accounts committee, suggested that the Commons Clerk Michael Jack may also be forced to quit and that Home Office's permanent secretary Sir David Normington was in the "line of fire". Gordon Brown stopped short of ordering an inquiry, saying: "There is going to be a time when all these things are going to be investigated and reviewed after the police have finished their work."
David Cameron and Nick Clegg stepped up pressure on the Speaker by demanding that he hold a meeting with the Tories and Liberal Democrats. A video of the police raid on Mr Green's Commons office was being made public by the Conservatives this afternoon. Mr Martin is to make a Commons statement tomorrow.
