Wendy Morton's Deputy Speaker Bid To Raise Standards Of Behaviour
2 min read
It took Wendy Morton a long time to work out what three words encapsulated her bid for deputy speaker.
But after a long time with pencil and paper, ‘commitment’, ‘respect’ and ‘confidence’ were the words she settled on.
“I've really thought long and hard about how to pitch myself,” the Conservative MP for Aldridge-Brownhills tells The House. “I've been a backbencher. I've been a minister. I've been a whip. I've worked on select committees, backbench business committees – I've done loads of things like that. I've done some of the international diplomacy piece as well, which also fits into the bigger Speaker role.
“But for me, when you peel all that back, it comes down to commitment to the job and respect for the role. And it's about, as I put there: confidence, and confidence in the Speaker's team. To me, that is the most important thing of all.”
With 335 new MPs representing 14 different parties, upholding standards of behaviour may prove challenging in this Parliament. But Morton does not “want to get drawn at this stage” on what specific measures could be brought in to improve the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme.
She also disagrees with those who say, ‘the ICGS needs reform’. “That’s not entirely my thinking,” she explains. “But I think again, we have to continually look at these things”.
Now, Morton sees this political churn as an opportunity to raise standards of behaviour.
“I do want to see us do more work on that. We were all sent to do a course… ‘respecting one another’, or ‘valuing each other’. That was an attempt to try and [raise standards],” she says.
“I think it needs more than that, and it's going to be something that we have to continually work at. But I think that's where a new Parliament gives us that opportunity.”
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