The resignation of the Speaker’s spin doctor over the “mis-briefing” of the £4,000 in taxi expenses for Mrs Speaker caps a bad week for Speaker Martin.

The charge-sheet is getting longer and the voices getting louder, if he had any sense he would stand down before a way is found to push him out. That he was involved in efforts to hide MP’s expenses from Freedom of Information requests shows he is clearly the wrong person to lead parliament into a more open and transparent future. The revelation that the Speaker claims mortgage subsidy allowance for a property without a mortgage when he already lives in a grand manner at the public expense is a fiddle too far. This is an abuse fo the system which Martin has been using to featherbed his lifestyle and subsidise even his family’s lifestyle. Time to say “goodbye” Mr Speaker…