Election of Lord Speaker

My Lords, on behalf of the whole House, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, on being elected our Lord Speaker. I look forward to working closely with him in his new role when he takes up the post next month. I know he will represent the House rigorously and will act robustly—as he is known to—in the role for Members across your Lordships’ House. I also pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Bull.

Hear, hear.

Hers was a dedicated campaign and candidacy. Both candidates were an absolute credit to your Lordships’ House and I thank them. The campaign process was courteous and dignified, showing that, despite being the unelected House, we can run a good election. I also extend thanks to all the House staff involved in the election, particularly those in the Journal Office, the Hansard Society and the digital team for supporting all Members to take part and making sure that a right and proper procedure was followed.

As usual, time will be made available for the House to pay tribute to my noble friend Lord McFall when he leaves the Woolsack, and I have promised him, under pain of retaliation, that we will not be paying tribute to him today and pre-empting the tributes we will pay later, but I know that the whole House will want to thank him for what has been really sterling service to the House for so many years. Thank you.

My Lords, I entirely endorse everything the Leader of the House has said on our behalf. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Forsyth—and he is my friend. However, I remember that, when I first became a Minister in your Lordships’ House, it fell to my noble friend to ask the first Question. I was very pleased and went up to him and said, “I’m glad it’s you asking a Question” and he said, “Yes, yes, good”. And, my Lords, he asked me a right bastard of a Question! I am sorry: that may not be parliamentary language. He asked me a really difficult Question. I said to him afterwards, “So what’s going on?” He gave me that seraphic smile and said, “Well, you did very well”.

I only tell that story to show that I know my noble friend, as the Leader of the House said, is rigorous in his scrutiny. He was as rigorous in his scrutiny of us on our side when we were in Government as he is here. He is a great parliamentarian and will be a wonderful servant of your Lordships’ House in his new role, I have no doubt.

Like the Leader, I would like to pay a most sincere tribute to—if I may say—my noble friend Lady Bull, who conducted herself with her habitual decorum and charm. I hope she will take from this election a sense of the respect and affection in which she is held. The Cross Benches are a vital part of this House, and long may that remain.

Like others, I accept the strictures that there should be no tributes to the Lord Speaker today. I regret, however, that I will not be present on the day assigned for tributes, for personal reasons. Therefore, I hope noble Lords will forgive me if I take 30 seconds to express my deepest sense of friendship, affection and gratitude for his service as Lord Speaker, as chair of the commission and in so many other ways. I worked with him as both Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition, and he treated me in the same way on both occasions. He is a consummate servant of the House, in often not easy circumstances, and some of that may come out in the tributes, along with, in particular and as we all know, his love for and dedication to his wife. He is an outstanding servant of the House and will continue to be so for the rest of the month. I hope he will accept my apologies that I will not be present on the assigned day but will know that these brief words are no less deeply and sincerely meant.

My Lords, on behalf of the Liberal Democrat Benches, I too give warm congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, on his election and an efficiently run election. I suspect that Ministers of all party persuasions will feel a slight relief that he will no longer be asking those types of questions of any Minister. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, for her candidacy and the way in which she conducted it with a sense of integrity, commitment and optimism: the House thanks her for that.

We wish the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, well in his work on the Woolsack, and perhaps the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, and I can be forgiven for rather liking the Caledonian continuity in the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, following the noble Lord, Lord McFall. They also have another thing in common: a deeply held passion for parliamentary accountability. Their politics are based on ideas, crafting an argument, shrewdness and, yes, wit. I know that all his estimable skills are going to be put to good use in his service to the House and we wish him well for it.

My Lords, I will be very brief. I am very much looking forward on the commission to seeing the forensic skills of the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, as he questions the many people we have to question. I dare say that matters such as the door will have a very rough ride indeed. It is a little hard for us sometimes to recruit Members to the Cross Bench, but I am much looking forward to his arrival in five years’ time. That will be wonderful, and I will reserve everything that I have to say about the many warm and happy memories that I have of the Lord Speaker.

I finish by turning to my noble friend and colleague who ran the very finest of campaigns. I am very glad I am going to be able to carry on sitting next to her; she brings much-needed glamour to our Front Bench.

My Lords, I have known and worked alongside the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, for many years, since we represented neighbouring constituencies in the House of Commons in the 1980s. Michael was Conservative MP for Stirling, on the east bank of Loch Lomond, while I was a Labour representative for Dumbarton on the west side. It is fair to say that we did not see eye to eye on every issue. When there was turbulence in the waters of Loch Lomond, locals would say, “Aye, that’s McFall and Forsyth rowing again”. But, although we locked horns many times, I always recognised Michael as an honourable and distinguished public servant, dedicated to the good governance of our nation and the well-being of its people. That impression has been further cemented by his work here in the House of Lords, particularly as chair of the Economic Affairs Committee and the Financial Services Regulation Committee. After more than 40 years’ service in both Houses of Parliament, I am sure the noble Lord will find, as I have done, that the post of Lord Speaker is both the most rewarding job of his career and the honour of a lifetime.

I thank both the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, for putting themselves forward as candidates to serve this House and congratulate them on the constructive way they conducted the election, and I also thank all those involved in the administration of the contest. But above all I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, on his election and offer him my best wishes and support in his new role as Lord Speaker.

My Lords, I am most grateful for these very flattering tributes from all the Front Benches. My father would have been astonished and my mother would have believed them. I am overwhelmed and slightly humbled, believe it or not—I do not know why noble Lords are all laughing—by the confidence and trust that have been put in me by those who supported my election. Not all noble Lords voted for me and, for those who did not vote for me, I would just like to say that I completely understand why. That is because I had in my opponent a formidable candidate and I echo all the words that have been said about the noble Baroness, Lady Bull.

The Clerk of the House was very kind and told both of us the result on Friday, so we have had quite an interesting weekend trying not to tell anyone what was happening. I rang the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, and she has very kindly agreed to continue to support me as Deputy Speaker. We will work together to deliver what were so many common issues across the Benches—that you can be sure of.

I am sorry we are not allowed to say anything at this stage about the Lord Speaker. I think he has done a brilliant job and it is a great privilege for me to have the opportunity to build on the great work that he has done on increasing accountability in the House and moving us forward. I look forward to serving all noble Lords, whether they voted for me or not, with pleasure, and I will try to avoid being political—which for people like me must be a bit like coming off heroin as an addict.