In addition, they remain a constituency Member of Parliament (MP), are part of the Privy Council, and represent the Commons to the monarch, the House of Lords and other authorities.

The continuous history of the office of speaker is held to date from 1376[6] when Peter de la Mare spoke for the commons in the "Good Parliament" as they joined leading magnates in purging the chief ministers of the Crown and the most unpopular members of the king's household.

In the next, "Bad Parliament", in 1377, a cowed Commons put forward Gaunt's steward, Thomas Hungerford, as their spokesman in retracting their predecessors' misdeeds of the previous year.

Gaunt evidently wanted a "mirror-image" as his form of counter-coup and this notion, born in crisis, of one 'speaker', who quickly also became 'chairman' and organiser of the Commons' business, was recognised as valuable and took immediate root after 1376–1377.

Eight days later, Cheyne resigned on grounds of ill-health, although he remained in favour with the king and active in public life for a further 14 years.

[citation needed] Throughout the medieval and early modern period, every speaker was an MP for a county, reflecting the implicit position that such shire representatives were of greater standing in the house than the more numerous burgess (municipality) MPs.

As Parliament evolved, however, the speaker's position grew to involve more duties to the House than to the Crown; this was definitely true by the time of the English Civil War.

This change is sometimes said to be reflected by an incident in 1642, when King Charles I entered the House in order to search for and arrest five members for high treason.

[citation needed] The speaker between 1728 and 1761, Arthur Onslow, reduced ties with the government, though the office remained to a large degree political.

[8] The speaker has significant influence on legislation, for example by selecting which amendments to a bill may be proposed, and by interpreting and enforcing the rules of Parliament as laid out in the official parliamentary rulebook, Erskine May.

However, this system broke down in 2000 when twelve rival candidates declared for the job and the debate occupied an entire parliamentary day.

[16] The House of Commons Procedure Committee then re-examined the means of electing a speaker and recommended a new system that came into effect in 2007 and was first used in June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin.

Upon the passage of the motion, the speaker-elect is expected to show reluctance at being chosen; they are customarily "dragged unwillingly" by MPs to the speaker's bench.

If a speaker is chosen in the middle of a parliament due to a vacancy in the office, they must receive the royal approbation as described above but does not again lay claim to the Commons' rights and privileges.

Although Gully proved his impartiality to the satisfaction of most of his opponents and was unanimously re-elected after the 1895 general election, the episode left many Unionists bitter.

In 1971, having had early warning that Horace King would be retiring, the Conservatives took the lead in offering to the Labour Party either Selwyn Lloyd or John Boyd-Carpenter as potential speakers.

De Freitas was taken aback by the sudden nomination and urged the House not to support him (a genuine feeling, unlike the feigned reluctance which all speakers traditionally show).

Betty Boothroyd announced her retirement shortly before the summer recess in 2000, which left a long time for would-be speakers to declare their candidature but little opportunity for Members of Parliament to negotiate and decide on who should be chosen.

Ed Selkirk Ford of the Constitution Society has suggested this is a deliberate protection against a majority government removing a speaker they are displeased with on a whim.

[22][23] The House may pass a non-binding motion expressing no confidence in the Speaker, which can make their position unsustainable in the face of opposition from a sizeable portion of MPs.

For example, Selwyn Lloyd and George Thomas had both served as high-ranking Cabinet members and Bernard Weatherill and Betty Boothroyd had been party whips.

By modern convention the deputies (actively presiding roles) adhere to this and number one from the speaker's former party, and two from the other side of the House.

[26] The sub-committee, chaired by former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, reported in April 1939 that no change should be made; disallowing opposition to a sitting speaker would be "a serious infringement of democratic principles" and that "to alter the status of the speaker, so that he ceased to be returned to the House of Commons by the same electoral methods as other members or as a representative of a Parliamentary constituency, would be equally repugnant to the custom and tradition of the House".

Her successor, Michael Martin, also declined to wear the wig; moreover, he chose to simplify other aspects of the costume, doing away with the once customary buckled court shoes and silk stockings.

His successor John Bercow abandoned traditional dress, wearing a plain black gown over his lounge suit when presiding.

[31] During debate, the speaker is responsible for maintaining discipline and order,[32] and rules on all points of order (objections made by members asserting that a rule of the House has been broken – though sometimes used by a Member in a rhetorical manner such as to ask if it is in order that (some named matter) be placed in the official record while knowing that by asking it will be, or asking if (some Minister) has informed the Speaker of an intention to make a statement on (some named topic) to the House as a way to record the request in the official record); the decisions may not be appealed.

Division on John Bercow's legacy led to this precedent being broken for the first time in over two centuries when he was not nominated to the House of Lords by the Government.

[42] The Speaker's Chaplain commences daily proceedings by leading prayers and also conducts marriages of Members when they are carried out in the crypt chapel of the Palace of Westminster.

On state occasions (such as the Opening of Parliament), the speaker wears a robe of black satin damask trimmed with gold lace and frogs and, in the past, a full-bottomed wig and tricorne hat.

He later said he would wear the full court dress on ceremonial occasions, which he first did at the State Opening on 19 December 2019, with lanyard included, albeit without the wig, which is still stored under the bed of former Speaker Bernard Weatherill’s daughter-in-law.