'The country's changed, so parliament should change.' HarrietHarman, now a candidate for speaker of the house, highlights how pivotal the role is and praises John Bercow for modernising it during his time as speaker. More on this story here:
"I think it's time for another woman, because actually the House of Commons has changed.
"We've now got more than 200 women MPs and a woman speaker in the chair would send a very good message and show that parliament has changed."that he will stand down at the end of October after 10 years in the role, which involves presiding over proceedings in the Commons. He has been seen as a champion of backbench MPs and their efforts to hold the government to account, particularly on Brexit.But critics have accused Mr Bercow of straying out of the bounds of his authority and raised questions about his impartiality following a number of rulings which were considered to favour Remain supporters.
He has survived numerous attempts to remove him from the chair, as well as revelations about his expenses and allegations of bullying, which he denied. Ms Harman defended Mr Bercow's approach to handling Commons proceedings and said he leaves"big shoes to fill"."In doing that and ensuring that parliament is not pushed around by the executive, he did attract controversy and unpopularity.Ms Harman added that MPs have got"a lot to thank him for" in terms of modernising the working conditions in parliament.
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