Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom) and 2005. At the 2010 general election, Speaker John Bercow faced ten opponents, including Nigel Farage, former leader of UKIP, who obtained 17.4% of the vote, and John Stevens, from the Buckinghamshire Campaign for Democracy party, who obtained 21.4%. Bercow won with 47% of the vote. The Speaker's primary function is to preside over the House of Commons. Traditionally, the Speaker when presiding wore court dress—a black coat with white shirt and bands, beneath a black gown, with stockings and buckled shoes, and a full-bottomed wig. But in 1992 Betty Boothroyd, the first female Speaker, eschewed the wig. Her successor,
1951 Speaker of the British House of Commons election 1951 Speaker of the British House of Commons election The 1951 election of the Speaker of the House of Commons occurred on 31 October 1951, following the 1951 general election and the retirement of the previous Speaker Col Douglas Clifton Brown. The election resulted in the election of Conservative MP William Morrison. This was one of the few Speaker elections held in the 20th century in which there was more than one nominee (the others including 1971 and 1992), and the first contested election of Speaker since 10 April 1895. The election was conducted by means of a conventional parliamentary