Red Box: could Martin departure be too soon for Tories? |

The future of Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, was in the balance last night after David Cameron suggested that he no longer had confidence in him.

Support for Mr Martin was falling away as he faced a cross-party assault on his integrity over his handling of the police raid on the office in the Palace of Westminster of Damian Green, the Shadow Immigration Minister.

Calls for his departure grew after a former Deputy Speaker, Lord Naseby, said he was “amazed” that Mr Martin had failed to stop the police entering the office without a warrant.

In a blow to the Speaker’s authority, the Tory leader declined invitations to give Mr Martin his backing, saying that MPs needed to regain confidence in the Speaker’s office. “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 said. Asked if he had that confidence at the moment, Mr Cameron told the BBC: “I want to have that confidence.”

Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House, has already refused to express confidence in Mr Martin. She is the most senior figure on the Labour side to suggest that she has lost confidence in him – a view not shared by Gordon Brown.

The Liberal Democrats have withdrawn from the Speaker’s committee and the frontbencher Norman Lamb said it was “unfair” that the Serjeant at Arms had been left by Mr Martin to shoulder the responsibility for allowing the police to search Mr Green’s office.

The row escalated yesterday after the Speaker’s office suggested over the weekend that Mr Martin was intending to stand for a third term.

Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that this was for MPs rather than Mr Martin to decide.

A survey of 130 MPs by BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend found that 32 had lost confidence in him. But senior Tories told The Times that Mr Martin might be given a stay of execution until the next election because they see dangers in forcing him out immediately. They emphasise that Mr Cameron’s remarks did not represent a turning point, merely a view he has held for several months.

In Mr Cameron’s mind the turning point came when Mr Martin stopped him in full flow during Prime Minister’s Questions, saying that the subject matter – the Labour conference – was out of order.

The Tories are cautious because, without a majority, they fear that they might not get someone they regard as a suitable candidate and Labour could turn the tables and install a third Labour Speaker in a row.

Late last week the Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews added his name to the list of those saying that the Speaker should go. The list grew again yesterday, with the former Labour minister Stephen Ladyman saying: “We will be incredibly distressed if the inquiry throws up evidence that there was any level of culpability in the Speaker – that he did have the opportunity to do something about it but didn’t do it.”

Michael Morris, now Lord Naseby, said he was “amazed” that Mr Martin had not stopped the police from entering Mr Green’s office.

“Why the Speaker was not in the lead role is something I find absolutely incomprehensible,” he told The World This Weekend.

“He needs to reflect on that situation. 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.”

The circumstances of Mr Green’s arrest on November 27 and the raid on his office will be debated in the Commons today, although the Tories are furious that the motion is limited to three hours.

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