PRESSURE is growing on House of Commons Speaker John Bercow to avoid a "terrible mess" in the forthcoming appointment of the elected chamber's most senior official.
MPs are expected to table a parliamentary motion when they return from their summer recess next week, demanding they have a veto over the new appointment as Commons Clerk.
Such is the intensity of the row brewing that Westminster insiders feel that a challenge to Mr Bercow, who has been Speaker since 2009, now looks inevitable.
Following a General Election, the incumbent Speaker usually, if he or she so wishes, remains in post even though there is a vote. But while Mr Bercow has let it be known privately he wants to remain in his prestigious role for at least 10 years, he faces the possibility of a challenge.
Many MPs, most notably fellow Conservatives, have turned against the MP for Buckingham. David Cameron is said to loathe him.
A committee overseen by Mr Bercow has opted to appoint Carol Mills, who heads the department of parliamentary services in Canberra, to replace the outgoing clerk, Sir Robert Rogers, on a salary of £200,000 a year.
But the appointment has caused a cross-party campaign opposing her appointment because some MPs feel the Australian lacks the necessary experience to oversee parliamentary procedure.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article