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Speakership: House Committee Report

My Lords, I declare an interest as a former Deputy Speaker in both Houses. Now that the House has decided on a new experiment to have a Lord Speaker in place of the Lord Chancellor on the Woolsack, it seems to me essential that the holder of that office should have the prestige and dignity that are in keeping with the importance that this House attaches to our Parliament as a whole and to our constitution as a whole. That is my fundamental point. I am sorry to find that I am in disagreement with a number of noble friends and others whose judgments I often respect. The House has decided very clearly that it does not want a House of Commons-type speaker. We wish to preserve the long tradition of self-regulation on which this House prides itself. That inevitably means that the duties of the Speakers of the two Houses will be different. However, there are important state occasions on which the two Houses combine. One obvious example is the jubilees of Her Majesty the Queen, when many of us have assembled in Westminster Hall to present a Loyal Address to Her Majesty, to which she has been graciously pleased to come along and reply. Who gives the lead on those occasions? Not the Prime Minister of the day, but the Speaker of the House of Commons, who gives the lead to that House as its leader. I hope equally that, when we have our new Lord Speaker, he will do likewise. It is very important that the two posts should be equal. Our Lord Speaker should in no way be the little also-ran. The two should be equal in prestige and in the job that they do. Another very important occasion is when we have visiting heads of state. We quite often invite them to address both Houses. This is done jointly; the two Houses combine. If the head of state is from a Commonwealth country, we assemble in Westminster Hall to hear their address. If the head of state is from a non-Commonwealth country, we assemble in the Royal Gallery. We do it together as two Houses. It seems to me of great importance that the Speaker of the House of Commons, representing the House of Commons, and the Lord Speaker, representing our House, should be equal and have an equally significant role. It is for those reasons that it seems to me that our House Committee has got it right. If this were to come to a vote, I should vote in favour of the recommendations that our House Committee has put before us with regard to salary, pensions and allowances.