Conservative MPs will support Margaret Beckett, the former Labour leader, over one of their own for the Speaker’s chair amid signs that the race is showing a form of inverted tribalism and party whips are playing an increasingly central role.

Shadow Cabinet ministers and backbenchers told The Times yesterday that they would not consider voting for John Bercow, the Tory front-runner, who has fallen out with the Conservative leadership and many members of his own side. They would rather see Mrs Beckett, who served in the Callaghan Government and was a minister until she was sacked in the last reshuffle, installed to replace Michael Martin, who leaves office on Sunday. Prominent members of Gordon Brown’s whips’ office past and present, including John Spellar and Ian Austin, are organising a campaign to install Mrs Beckett as Speaker. Mrs Beckett and Mr Bercow are considered to be the front-runners in the field of ten, closely followed by Sir George Young, Tory chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee.

Mrs Beckett’s rapid success has left some MPs complaining that their colleagues are more interested in party politics and in electing a “shop steward” who will defend them. “I love Margaret dearly but the public would not stand for her as Speaker,” said one Cabinet minister who supports Mr Bercow. “What would they think after her appearance on Question Time and the way she has voted in the past?”

On the BBC programme last month, the audience turned on the then Housing Minister for expenses claims that included £600 for hanging baskets and pot plants. She was almost drowned out by shouts of “scandal” and “Are you better than us?” after she refused to pay back a penny of her expenses to the taxpayer.

“It is not appreciated that MPs have extra costs that even comparable jobs do not have, and the second reason is because no one is allowed to explain,” she told the audience.

Mrs Beckett also has a chequered history on votes on expenses. As well as the second-home claims, she voted against reforms put forward by Mr Martin last year to end the right of MPs to claim on furniture for their second homes. She abstained from votes exempting Parliament from the freedom of information requirements.

Some Labour MPs, increasingly disillusioned with the way the race is going, might turn to Ann Widdecombe because no other candidate is talking credibly about reform. Although Ms Widdecombe is promising only limited changes, she would stand down at the next general election, meaning another contest for Speaker in less than a year.

There were signs last night that the Speaker race was turning nasty as Nadine Dorries, a Tory backbencher, attacked Mr Bercow’s wife, who is a Labour supporter. Writing on her blog, she said that should Mr Bercow be elected on Monday she would attempt to unseat him after a general election.

At last night’s hustings in front of the Parliamentary Labour Party, candidates were asked about the expenses inquiry chief, Sir Christopher Kelly, Private Members’ Bills, cross-boundary disputes between MPs and how to make the Commons more family-friendly. Mrs Beckett refused to answer a yes-no question on whether select committee chairmen should be elected by the whole house. All other candidates said yes.

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