Today parliament will choose the First and Second Deputy Speakers. Chamber UK have had the chance to interview two of the expected front-runners, Caroline Nokes and Wendy Morton.
With Hoyle elected as Speaker for the duration of this parliament, today’s election will determine who the First and Second Deputy speaker will be. This article will look at the First Deputy Speaker candidates, otherwise known as the ‘Chair of Way and Means’.
The Deputy Speaker presides over parliament with the powers of speaker when the speaker is unable to attend, as well as during the Chancellor’s speech. They also have significant influence over the general way in which parliament operates.
Due to parliamentary convention, the First Deputy Speaker cannot be from the same side of the house as the Speaker. One of the key roles of the Deputy Speaker is to counterbalance the centralization of power into the party that the speaker is drawn from.
With Labour holding an impressive majority and the speakership through Hoyle, some candidates have emphasized the importance of preventing the “monopolization” of power in the hands of a single party.
Additionally, the winner of today’s election will have to work with not only a number of third parties, but an unprecedented number of MPs who have never set foot in parliament before.
Wendy Morton
Helen Grant
The first Black Woman Conservative MP when elected in 2010, if elected deputy speaker, Helen Grant would be the first Black Deputy Speaker. With her predecessor being the first female deputy speaker, the election would be, in her words, “breaking yet another glass ceiling”.
Helen’s biggest policy for the deputy speakership is to make parliament more “family friendly”. As of the 2024 parliament, 435 MPs (67%) have children. With such a large number of MPs having parental responsibilities, in 2015, Helen was one of a number of MPs who have opposed the expansion of alcohol vendors within parliament.
She has also worked with the previous speaker to expand crèche facilities, allowing children to be cared for during parliamentary sessions.
As speaker, Helen will aim to improve the ability of parents to bring their children with them. Not only will this allow MPs to spend more time with their family, but it will allow people from a greater range of backgrounds to take part in parliament.
Karen Bradley
In her 14 years in parliament, Karen has developed significant experience for this role. Serving as chair of the procedure committee, Karen has overseen the body tasked with altering or maintaining the procedure of parliament.
Karen, like several other candidates, have emphasised the importance of mental health. Additionally however, she has stated that “there has to be the stick when things go wrong.”
Nusrat Ghani
Since being elected in 2015, Ghani has had an active parliamentary career. Ghani has served as assistant whip, Vice Chair of the 1922 Committee and most recently, Minister of State for Europe. She has particularly emphasized the co-operation she has exhibited in her role in the 1922 committee.
However, there’s one aspect of her career that she has argued makes her he best placed to serve as the deputy speaker.
Central to her pitch is her role in leading an inquiry into the alleged use of Uighur Muslim forced Labour in British supply change in late 2020. Due to her leadership of the inquiry, Ghani was among five MPs sanctioned by the Chinese government in 2021. The following month, she tabeled a successful motion condemning China as committing genocide against its Uyghur minority.
Her statement argues that this experience makes her experienced in standing up to “unprecedented threats to our democratic process from both domestic and foreign actors”. She has noted that she was “the only female MP to be targeted” by sanctions.
With the murder of David Amess in 2022, and a number of MPs of all sides expressing concern regarding safety, it is likely that many will be receptive to a speaker who will emphasise these issues.
In the run-up to the deputy speaker election today, Nusrat wrote in the Mail on Sunday about her own personal experiences, speaking of one of her first MP surgeries when a constituent threatened her with a bullet due to her sex and ethnicity.
Nusrat’s candidacy seeks to set herself apart on the issue of security. Whilst other candidates have talked about the issue, she seeks to make it the central part of her campaign.
Caroline Nokes
Roger Gale
Roger Gale has actually had previous experience in the role. During Elanor Laing’s illness in December 2022, Gale covered for Elanor Laing, taking over her role as temporary Deputy Speaker until her recovery. Gale has emphasised mental health for MPs, explaining that he would help MPs understand the responsibilities of parliament whilst making sure they felt comfortable.
Final Thought
With this parliament seeing an 80 year record of 118 third party MPs, with a total of 14 parties, the Deputy Speaker will be given the unenviable task of making sure that all of the various groups within parliament feel heard and have an equal right to speak.
It is interesting to note that all of today’s candidates were from either the Conservative or Labour parties. Since 1966, every Deputy speaker has been from one of these two parties.
As mentioned previously, this parliament has an unprecedented level of third parties. Despite this unprecedented growth, key parliament positions such as the deputy speakership are still under the two main parties.
For more of Chamber UK’s British political analysis please click here.
This article was written by Chamber UK’s features writer – Alex Connor.