2000 Speaker of the British House of Commons election for electing a Speaker were changed the following year to a use a secret and exhaustive ballot. This procedure was first used in the Speaker election of 2009. Under the old system for electing Speakers of the House of Commons, a candidate would be nominated and seconded, and alternative candidates would be offered as 'amendments' to that initial motion. In 2000, 11 candidates stepped forward, leading Sir Edward Heath, presiding in his capacity as Father of the House, to have the candidates voted on two at a time. He called Michael Martin to be nominated first. In the event, no
Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom) parties that the system of election needed to be overhauled. Now, a candidate's consent is required before he or she can be nominated. The last three instances of the election of a new Speaker (1992, 2000 and 2009) have all been relatively controversial. Bernard Weatherill had announced his impending retirement a long time before the 1992 general election, leading to a long but suppressed campaign for support. Betty Boothroyd, a Labour MP who had been Deputy Speaker, was known to be extremely interested in becoming the first woman Speaker (and in doing so, finished the chances of fellow Labour MP