What Is the Speaker of the House?

Anyone who has watched the House of Commons will have seen the figure in the chair calling members to order, deciding who gets to speak, and occasionally bellowing for quiet above the noise. That is the Speaker, one of the oldest and most important offices in Parliament. The role is easy to caricature but widely misunderstood: the Speaker is not a party leader or a policymaker, but an impartial referee whose job is to make the House work. Here is what the Speaker of the House actually does, why impartiality sits at the heart of the role, and how a Speaker is chosen.

What it is

The Speaker of the House is the chief presiding officer of the House of Commons, responsible for chairing its debates and enforcing its rules and conventions. The Speaker is the highest authority within the Commons chamber: the person who keeps order, manages the flow of business, decides who may speak, and ensures that proceedings are conducted fairly and according to the rules the House has set for itself.

Crucially, the Speaker is not a member of the government, nor the leader of any faction. The office is deliberately separate from the contest of party politics. A Speaker is still an elected MP representing a constituency, but in the chair they act for the House as a whole, not for any side within it.

What the Speaker does

The role combines several distinct functions, all aimed at making the Commons run smoothly and fairly.

• Chairing debates. The Speaker presides over sittings of the House, calling members to speak in turn and managing the order of business so that debate proceeds in an orderly way.
• Keeping order. When tempers fray or the chamber grows unruly, it is the Speaker who restores calm, and who can discipline members who break the rules, in serious cases ordering them to leave.
• Ruling on procedure. Members raise points of order to query whether the rules are being followed. The Speaker rules on these and interprets the often intricate procedures that govern the House.
• Protecting the minority. A central duty is to safeguard the rights of backbenchers and of smaller parties and the opposition, making sure that those without power still get a hearing and that the government of the day cannot simply steamroll the House.
• Representing the Commons. On ceremonial and official occasions, and in dealings with the House of Lords and the Crown, the Speaker speaks for the Commons.

The Speaker's authority rests not on power over policy but on the trust of the whole House that the chair will be fair to everyone in it.

In deciding which amendments are debated and how time is used, the Speaker shapes how measures progress, including the limited opportunities given to a private members bill.

Why impartiality is everything

The defining principle of the office is impartiality. When an MP is elected Speaker, they step away from party politics. By long-standing convention the Speaker no longer attends party meetings, takes part in party debates, or votes in the ordinary way. The whole system depends on every side believing that the person in the chair will treat them fairly, regardless of which party they belong to.

This neutrality is reinforced in practice and by convention.

1. No party debate. The Speaker does not speak for or against the matters being decided, but presides over the discussion.
2. No ordinary vote. The Speaker does not vote in normal divisions. If a vote is tied, the Speaker has a casting vote, which is used according to established principles, generally to avoid making the final decision a matter of the Speaker's own opinion, rather than to take a side.
3. A separate standing. The independence of the office is protected by tradition, so that the Speaker can rule against the powerful without fear.

This is why the Speaker is sometimes described as a referee. The referee does not decide what the teams do; they ensure the rules are followed so the game is fair. Maintaining order also means managing the party managers themselves, the role of the whip in politics, whose job is to marshal votes.

How a Speaker is chosen

The Speaker is elected by fellow MPs. When the office becomes vacant, members vote to choose one of their own number to take the chair. The choice is made by the House itself, which underlines that the Speaker serves the Commons rather than the executive.

Several conventions surround the role:

• Cross-party support. Because the Speaker must command the confidence of the whole House, candidates typically need backing from across the parties, not just their own.
• Not opposed at elections. By tradition, the main parties do not put up candidates against a sitting Speaker in their constituency at a general election, a recognition of the office's impartial standing.
• A symbolic reluctance. A historical custom sees a newly chosen Speaker show a token reluctance to take the chair, a reminder of a time when the role could be perilous, caught between Parliament and the Crown.

Once in post, a Speaker can serve across several Parliaments, providing continuity and accumulated authority that help the office command respect.

The bottom line

The Speaker of the House is the chief presiding officer of the House of Commons: the person who chairs debates, keeps order, rules on procedure, and protects the rights of all members, especially the minority. The role rests on strict impartiality, with the Speaker setting aside party allegiance, not voting in the ordinary way, and using a casting vote only by long-established principle. Chosen by fellow MPs and, by tradition, unopposed at elections, the Speaker is best understood as the referee of the Commons, whose authority depends entirely on being trusted to be fair to every side.