DUMBARTON’S former MP has been elected to one of the top jobs in the Houses of Parliament.
John McFall – now Lord McFall – was elected as the new Speaker of the House of Lords, or simply Lord Speaker, this week.
The former Labour MP beat Baroness Hayter and Lord Alderdice in the election to the job, which comes with a salary of £104,360.
He represented the Dumbarton constituency at Westminster from 1987 until 2005, and after constituency boundaries in Scotland were redrawn, served as West Dunbartonshire's MP for a further five years before retiring from the Commons.
A few weeks after the 2010 general election, he was made a member of the House of Lords, taking as his title Baron McFall of Alcluith – Alcluith being the Celtic Britons' name for what would eventually become known as Dumbarton.
He has served as senior deputy speaker of the House of Lords since 2016.
“I am humbled to have been chosen by my colleagues to serve as the next Lord Speaker and I am honoured to be taking over the reins from Lord Fowler, who has achieved so much during his term of office,” he said.
“As a House we face some fundamental challenges, the most immediate being how we return safely to Westminster in greater numbers once the current restrictions are relaxed, while harnessing the technical and procedural innovations that have enabled us to operate so differently over the past year.”
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