The 2000 election of the Speaker of the House of Commons occurred on 23 October 2000 following the retirement of

Betty Boothroyd Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd (born 8 October 1929) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000. From 1992 to 2000, she served as Speaker of the House of ...

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

. The election resulted in the election of

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP Michael Martin, who had served as Deputy Speaker since 1997. It was the first contested election since 27 April 1992.

Candidates

Nominated candidates

The following candidates were successfully nominated and called in the following order, which was decided at the 'discretion' of Edward Heath the chair of the session: File:Michael Martin MP (cropped).jpg, Michael Martin (

), nominated by Peter Snape and seconded by

Ann Keen Ann Lloyd Keen (''née'' Fox; born 26 November 1948) is a British Labour Party politician, who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentford and Isleworth from 1997, until she was defeated by Conservative candidate Mary Macleod in 2010. ...

File:Sir Alan headshot.JPG, Sir Alan Haselhurst (

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

), nominated by

David Winnick David Julian Winnick (born 26 June 1933) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Walsall North between 1979 and 2017, he was also the MP for Croydon South from 1966 to 1970. Early life Born into a Britis ...

and seconded by Peter Brooke File:Alan Beith MP Liverpool.jpg,

Alan Beith Alan James Beith, Baron Beith, (born 20 April 1943) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who represented Berwick-upon-Tweed as its Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2015. From 1992 to 2003 he was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democr ...

( Liberal Democrats), nominated by

Dafydd Wigley Dafydd Wynne Wigley, Baron Wigley, (born David Wigley; 1 April 1943) is a Welsh politician. He served as Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001 and as Assembly Member for Caernarfon from 1999 until 2003. He w ...

and seconded by

Jackie Ballard Jacqueline Margaret Ballard (née Mackenzie; born 4 January 1953) has been a charity senior manager, politician and journalist in the United Kingdom. Her former roles include Director General of the RSPCA, Chief Executive of RNID and Chief Exec ...

Dunwoody.jpg,

Gwyneth Dunwoody Gwyneth Patricia Dunwoody (née Phillips; 12 December 1930 – 17 April 2008) was a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Exeter from 1966 to 1970, and then for Crewe (later Crewe and Nantwich) from February ...

(

), nominated by David Davis and seconded by

Marjorie Mowlam Dr Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam (18 September 1949 – 19 August 2005) was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minis ...

File:George Young Minister.jpg,

Sir George Young George Samuel Knatchbull Young, Baron Young of Cookham, (born 16 July 1941), known as Sir George Young, 6th Baronet, from 1960 to 2015, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 2015, h ...

(

), nominated by John MacGregor and seconded by Helen Jackson Sir Ming Campbell MP 2008 cropped.jpg,

Menzies Campbell Walter Menzies Campbell, Baron Campbell of Pittenweem, (; born 22 May 1941), often known as Ming Campbell, is a British Liberal Democrat politician, advocate and former athlete. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Fife from ...

( Liberal Democrats), nominated by

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playi ...

and seconded by Derek Wyatt File:Official portrait of Lord Clark of Windermere crop 3.jpg, David Clark (

), nominated by

John Maxton John Alston Maxton, Baron Maxton (born 5 May 1936) is a Scottish Labour Party politician. From 1979 to 2001 he was a backbencher Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons. Early life He is a nephew of the former Independent Labour Pa ...

and seconded by

Joan Ruddock Dame Joan Mary Ruddock, (née Anthony; born 28 December 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015. Ruddock was Minister of State for Energy at the Departmen ...

File:Sir Nicholas Winterton 0992.jpg,

Nicholas Winterton Sir Nicholas Raymond Winterton (born 31 March 1938) is a retired British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Macclesfield from 1971 until he retired from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election. H ...

(

), nominated by John Wilkinson and seconded by

Stephen Pound Stephen Pelham Pound (born 3 July 1948) is a British former Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing North from 1997 to 2019. Background His father, Pelham Pendennis Pound (1922–1999) was a BBC sub-editor an ...

File:blank.svg, John McWilliam (

), nominated by Jamie Cann and seconded by

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

File:Official portrait of Lord Framlingham crop 2.jpg,

Michael Lord Michael Nicholson Lord, Baron Framlingham (born 17 October 1938) is a British politician, and was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich between 1997 and 2010. He was first elected for the predecessor seat of ...

(

), nominated by Tom King and seconded by Andrew Reed Official portrait of Lord Cormack crop 3.jpg, Sir Patrick Cormack (

), nominated by

Gillian Shephard Gillian Patricia Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, (''née'' Watts; born 22 January 1940), is a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 1987 to 2005. Shephard served as a Cabin ...

and seconded by

Tam Dalyell Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 198 ...

File:RichardShepherdMP.jpg,

Richard Shepherd Sir Richard Charles Scrimgeour Shepherd (6 December 1942 – 19 February 2022) was a British politician who was Member of Parliament for Aldridge-Brownhills from 1979 to 2015. A Eurosceptic, Shepherd was one of the Maastricht Rebels that had ...

(

), nominated by

Martin Bell Martin Bell, (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as " ...

and seconded by Tony Wright

Candidate who withdrew

* John Butterfill (

)

Election

This was the last Speaker election to be conducted by means of a conventional parliamentary motion with recorded votes on an amendment for each candidate. With an unusually large number of candidates, a significant number of MPs spoke in favour of switching to a less time-consuming procedure, but Sir

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conserv ...

, who was presiding in his capacity as

Father of the House Father of the House is a title that has been traditionally bestowed, unofficially, on certain members of some legislatures, most notably the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. In some legislatures the title refers to the longest continuously- ...

, declined to allow a vote on this issue. The repeated ballots took nearly six hours. Each candidate gave their own speech of submission to the will of the House, having each been nominated and seconded by Members in separate speeches. Martin was the front runner going into the ballot and was never in any danger of losing during the election, winning every ballot by at least 76 votes. As a result of this election, the rules for electing a Speaker were changed the following year to a use a

secret Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

and

exhaustive ballot The exhaustive ballot is a voting system used to elect a single winner. Under the exhaustive ballot the elector casts a single vote for their chosen candidate. However, if no candidate is supported by an overall majority of votes then the candid ...

. This procedure was first used in the Speaker election of 2009.

Results

Under the old system for electing Speakers of the House of Commons, a candidate would be nominated and seconded, and alternative candidates would be offered as 'amendments' to that initial motion. In 2000, 11 candidates stepped forward, leading

Sir Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

, presiding in his capacity as Father of the House, to have the candidates voted on two at a time. He called Michael Martin to be nominated first. In the event, no candidate was able to surpass Martin in any of the ballots, and once all Martin's opponents had been eliminated from the contest, the original motion that he be elected Speaker was met with some audible opposition. A division was therefore held, but the motion was approved by 370 votes to 8. Martin was thus elected Speaker.

References

External links

House of Commons transcript, 23 October 2000
* C-Span video featuring part of the election proceedings: http://www.c-span.org/video/?160478-1/election-speaker {{United Kingdom Speaker elections 2000 elections in the United Kingdom

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

October 2000 events in the United Kingdom