'For sake of parliament, the Speaker must go and go now' - Kevin Lang

8.22.35am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 19th May 2009

Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Edinburgh North & Leith, Kevin Lang has called on the Speaker of the House of Commons to step down, following his handling of the MP expenses scandal.

A motion of now confidence has been tabled in the Speaker, signed by over 20 MPs, including several Liberal Democrat MPs. Last weekend, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg became the only party leader to publicly call for the Speaker to step down.

Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats, who came a close second to the Labour MP at the last election, Kevin Lang said,

"As someone who hopes to have the honour of being elected to the House of Commons at the next General Election, I believe it is vital for the House of Commons to quickly but thoroughly resolve the current problem of MPs expenses.

"There is intense feeling of anger and betrayal at those MPs who have wrongly claimed taxpayers' money. The last two weeks have done huge damage to the standing of parliament and the standing of politics in this country.

"Yet Speaker Martin has been one of the biggest barriers to reform. He also fought tooth and nail against this information becoming public.

"Worse still, his statement in the House of Commons yesterday provided a woefully inadequate response to this serious issue. His answer was simply to organise another meeting behind closed doors, just the kind of culture that landed Westminster into this mess in the first place.

"We need real, radical reform of MPs expenses and it is clear that the current Speaker cannot deliver that. For the sake of parliament and for the sake of our politics, he must go and go now."