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
House of Commons of the United Kingdom trade union, but this was declared illegal by a House of Lords judgment of 1909. Consequently, a resolution was passed in the House of Commons in 1911 introducing salaries for MPs. Government ministers had always been paid. In May and June 2009 revelations of MPs' expenses claims caused a major scandal and loss of confidence by the public in the integrity of MPs, as well as causing the first forced resignation of the Speaker in 300 years. Since 1950, each Member of Parliament has represented a single constituency. There remains a technical distinction between county constituencies and borough constituencies, but