'We have let you down'
Updated on 18 May 2009
Uncharacteristic humility from the Commons Speaker as he apologises for the expenses scandal. Gary Gibbon reports.
Michael Martin admitted to voters today: "We have let you down."
He is refusing to be forced out of his job, however, even with some MPs angrily calling for him to go.
Despite speculation that he might resign, the Speaker said he was calling together the party leaders to hammer out a new system of MPs' allowances.
There have been days of revelations about MPs' expenses claims, from mortgages that had already been paid off to gardening eqipment and moats.
Jon Snow is joined by leading protagonists in the debate swirling around the future of the Speaker, the Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell, who tabled today's motion of no confidence, and Lord Foulkes, who is a defender of the Speaker.
The prime minister is currently eschewing all full length interviews on the constitutional crisis, so we went to north London to try to get one.
