List of Speaker of the House of Commons Candidates

Iain Dale has a live blog of the proceedings for the election of the new Speaker here.


+++ UPDATE: 22/06/2009 09:30: Douglas Carswell MP announces for Richard Shepherd for Speaker of the House of Commons +++

I seem to be getting a lot of traffic from people looking for a list of the candidates for Speaker of the House of Commons which takes place on Monday 22nd June so I thought I would be helpful and keep a list of them updated here as well as some further information and links to what other bloggers are saying about the race:

LIST OF DECLARED CANDIDATES:

Margaret Beckett
John Bercow
Sir Patrick CormackSir Alan Haselhurst
Sir George Young
Parmjit Dhanda
Sir Alan Beith
Sir Michael LordAnn Widdecombe
Richard Shepherd

Frank Field ruled himself out a few days before the contest.

Also, there is a page on Wikipedia which keeps track of the contest here. There is a BBC News list of the runners and riders here.

21/06/2006 - 16:00

There are some interesting posts about the race from the Political Betting blog here:

Bercow now becomes an evens firm favourite

The Speakership: Tracking the horse race

The Speaker race: the prices get tighter

Is the battle now down to Young and Beckett?

Iain Dale seems to think Alan Haselhurst could come through the middle. He also has a Youtube clip of Sir Alan in action here. He is a scary man!

21/06/2006 - 23:40

Guido reports that Labour whips are now getting MPs behind Margaret Beckett. This surely makes her almost unbeatable now?

22/06/2009 - 09:30

John Ward gives his views on the election.

22/06/2009 - 09:35

Mike Smithson of Political Betting says that Margaret Beckett is the favourite but asks if a late entrant (they only need to declare by 10:30am today) could act as a spoiler for these odds:

UPDATE: 22/06/2009 - 09:40

The Talking Clock thinks that the new Speaker will be tainted before they even start.

And Stephen Glenn urges MPs not to let Margaret Beckett sit in the Speaker's chair.

UPDATE: 22/06/2009 - 12:50
I am against Margaret Beckett (as are a lot of other Lib Dem bloggers) and for Richard Shepherd.

UPDATE: Just so you know, I am keeping the content of this page updated as we get closer to the election on Monday 22nd June hence it might change.

Finally, it's a bit academic now but here were my thoughts and why it should have been Frank Field (although I did not think it would be!).