Speaker candidates announced
22 June 2009 (updated on 22 April 2010)
The candidates for the Speaker's election have now been confirmed by the Table Office and are listed below.
All the candidates will be invited to address the House of Commons at 2.30pm in an order determined by lot.
The order of speeches will be:
Margaret Beckett MP
Labour MP for Derby South for over 25 years. First female Foreign Secretary, she briefly led the Labour Party after death of John Smith.
Sir George Young MP
Conservative MP for over 35 years. MP for North West Hampshire and Chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee.
Ann Widdecombe MP
Former Shadow Home Secretary and MP for Maidstone and The Weald since 1987. She plans to stand down as an MP at the next general election so is standing as an interim Speaker.
Sir Alan Beith MP
Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed for more than 30 years. Former party leadership contender. Chairman of the Justice Committee. He was also a candidate in the Speaker's election of 2000.
John Bercow MP
Conservative MP for Buckingham since 1997. He was Shadow Secretary of State for International Development 2003-04. He has been a member of the International Development Select Committee since November 2004.
Richard Shepherd MP
Conservative MP for Aldridge-Brownhills for over 30 years. He also Stood for Speaker in 2000. He's a member of the Modernisation Committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
Sir Michael Lord MP
The Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich for over 25 years. Currently a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. Sir Michael Lord also stood for the Speakership in 2000.
Sir Patrick Cormack MP
Conservative MP for South Staffordshire and Member of Parliament since 1970. He also ran for Speaker in 2000. Chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
Sir Alan Haselhurst MP
Conservative MP for Saffron Walden and Member of Parliament since 1970. Currently a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. He was also deputy to former Speaker Betty Boothroyd.
Parmjit Dhanda MP
The 37-year-old former Fire Services Minister was elected to Parliament in 2001 as Labour MP for Gloucester.
The presiding officer, Alan Williams, who is the longest serving MP, will invite all the candidates to address the House of Commons at 2.30pm in an order determined by lot. In the past candidates have usually confined themselves to an address of about 5-10 minutes, although there is no limit as to how long they can speak. Once everyone has spoken, the House will proceed to the first secret ballot.
MP images: PA