The election of a new Speaker for the House of Commons is under way amid continued claims that Government whips have been attempting to fix the vote.

As all ten candidates lodged their nominations, Harriet Harman, the Leader of the Commons, denied that a cloak-and-dagger operation was being mounted to assure the election of Margaret Beckett, a Labour grandee regarded as the least likely to steer through radical cuts to the power of the executive.

Ms Harman claimed that she had no knowledge of any of the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring that Stephen Pound, a Labour backbencher, alleged was rife this morning.

“There is a lot of skulduggery going on,” Mr Pound told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“I think it is potentially a fatal mistake. It is a depressing example of MPs looking inwards to their own advantage when we really should be looking outwards.

“It is great opportunity for us to present a new, fresh face for Parliament and a lot of it looks like the same old, stale corruption, I fear.”

He added: “If any of the whips are out there listening, stop doing it. We know what you’re doing, you’re going round touting Margaret Beckett.”

Ms Harman flatly denied that the Government was pushing for one particular candidate to replace Michael Martin, who was forced out of the Speaker's job over his failure to drive through reform of MPs' allowances.

"I'm sure that there's no skulduggery and nor should there be," she said.

"(The whips) are not doing that, because there is no Government line, nor should there be. I don't know (what Stephen Pound is going on about) and I think he is completely wrong.

"It's an important election, of course it is, where there's an important election there is always campaigning, but at the end of the day the MPs can make up their own mind, they can vote in secret."

The candidates have spent the morning submitting their nomination papers to the Table office behind the Speaker's chair in the House of Commons. Hopefuls had to collect signatures for between 12 and 15 MPs, including three from opposing parties.

The frontrunners, Margaret Beckett, John Bercow, Sir George Young and Ann Widdecombe, amassed the signatures effortlessly.

This morning all the other candidates confirmed to The Times that they were in the race, including Richard Shepherd and Parmjit Dhanda, the two candidates thought to have the most difficult task amassing names. In fact, Mr Dhanda secured the maximum 15, while Mr Shepherd amassed just 12. The remaining candidates are Sir Alan Haselhurst, Sir Alan Beith, Sir Patrick Cormack and Michael Lord.

Seven of the ten are Conservatives, with Mrs Beckett and Mr Dhanda for Labour and Sir Alan Beith the sole Lib Dem. Their entries were due to be confirmed by the House of Commons authorities later this morning.

Several Speaker candidates are treating today as a family occasion, inviting spouses, children and grandchildren along to watch the speeches, which begin at 2.30pm, in the chamber.

Repeated rounds of secret ballots will follow, with one or more candidates knocked out in each round, until the frontrunner gains more than 50 per cent of the vote and is duly elected.

Mrs Beckett was the only candidate not to endorse plans to remove the powers of patronage from the Whips’ Offices — so that MPs, rather than party whips, would choose the chairmen of select committees.

Her candidacy was pushed by Nick Brown, the Chief Whip, while she was still a minister. Two of his deputies, John Spellar and Tommy McAvoy, have been championing her to MPs.

The Times has learnt that the Labour whips, who enforce the Government’s will in Parliament, are also trying to limit reforms that would give MPs more power over Government and meddling with the composition of the parliamentary reform committee. Opponents fear that they are trying to water down its power.

Today’s election is the first to be held by secret ballot — an attempt to dilute attempts by the parties to sway the outcome. Gordon Brown has declared that he will not vote.

Several candidates, including Mr Bercow and Sir George, have pledged to strengthen MPs’ powers. All three party leaders have indicated a willingness to rebalance the relationship between Parliament and Government.

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