New Speaker must listen to public and push ahead with reform, says Beith

11.30.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 23rd Jun 2009

Sir Alan Beith, the Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick upon Tweed, has welcomed the moves for reform in the House of Commons and to the MPs' expenses system which have emerged during the course of the election of a new Speaker. He has previously said that the House of Commons must accept the full recommendations of the independent Kelly inquiry which is looking at the system of expenses for Members of Parliament.

Sir Alan was the first Member of Parliament to announce that he would stand. In the first round of the secret ballot he came 5th out of the ten candidates. Following the elimination of the bottom four candidates, he came 4th in the second round, after which he withdrew his nomination.

Sir Alan said

"I congratulate the new Speaker, John Bercow, on his election and welcome the fact that he has committed himself to many of the reforms of the House of Commons that I have been putting forward.

"The public are demanding change and the election campaign for the post of Speaker enabled us to build and demonstrate much wider support for change among MPs, and I enjoyed taking part in it."

John Bercow is the Conservative MP for Buckingham.