Claim f879560cChecked 21 Jul 2026
TrueOn the truth scale
Sir Alan Haselhurst was elected multiple times as Deputy Speaker.
Mrs Kemi BadenochConservativeCon / North West Essex·Engagements·03 Jun 2026Factual · official legal institutional
Reasoning & Evidence21 Jul 2026
Sir Alan Haselhurst served as Deputy Speaker (formally Chairman of Ways and Means) of the House of Commons from 14 May 1997 to 8 June 2010, spanning multiple Parliaments elected in 1997, 2001, and 2005. Since the Deputy Speaker role is elected by the House of Commons at the beginning of each new Parliament, he was elected or re-elected multiple times. Key evidence: - Wikipedia states: "Following the 1997 general election, Haselhurst was elected Chairman of Ways and Means (Deputy Speaker), remaining in post under successive Speakers Betty Boothroyd, Michael Martin, and John Bercow until May 2010." - Politics.co.uk confirms: "In May 1997, he was appointed Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker and confirmed in this post after the 2001 General Election." - TheyWorkForYou lists separate Deputy Speaker entries for the 1997–2010 period and a brief interim period in May–June 2010. - The UK Parliament members page shows his career spanning multiple election cycles in the Deputy Speaker role. One minor nuance: The phrasing "elected multiple times as Deputy Speaker" could also reference his brief interim Deputy Speaker role after the 2010 election (25 May – 8 June 2010), but the core claim of being elected multiple times is accurate regardless. Sources: - Wikipedia, "Alan Haselhurst" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Haselhurst - Politics.co.uk, "Sir Alan Haselhurst" — https://www.politics.co.uk/reference/sir-alan-haselhurst/ - TheyWorkForYou, "Lord Haselhurst, former MP" — https://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/10263/lord_haselhurst - UK Parliament, "Parliamentary Career for Lord Haselhurst" — https://members.parliament.uk/member/43/career
From speech
I echo the Prime Minister’s words on Lance Corporal James Freeman and about the Royal Navy helicopter crash in Devon. I also send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Henry Nowak. The circumstances around Henry’s wrongful arrest and tragic murder must be a wake-up call to the entire country and our institutions that every life matters, and it is the responsibility of everyone in this House to bring people together, not divide them. Mr Speaker, with your permission, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Sir Alan Haselhurst—Lord Haselhurst—who died on Monday. Sir Alan served Parliament for over 50 years, eight of them in the Lords and 40 years as my predecessor as MP for Saffron Walden, while from 1970 to 1974 he was the Member of Parliament for Middleton and Prestwich. He was respected on all sides of this House, and was elected multiple times as your predecessor as Deputy Speaker, before he concluded in the other place. Apart from serving his constituents, Sir Alan’s greatest passion in Parliament and perhaps in life was cricket, as you said, Mr Speaker. He was chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on cricket, a role which he encouraged me to take up and which I graciously declined, telling him I knew absolutely nothing about cricket. However, I think colleagues should know that Sir Alan’s intense lobbying is the reason that Sky Sports can be found on the parliamentary TV network. There is so much to say, but just to let everyone know, he was a good and kind man and he will be very much missed. My thoughts are with his wife Angela, his children Mark, David and Emma, and his grandchildren. May I ask the Prime Minister by how much the welfare bill has risen since he came to office?
Sources opened
[1]members.parliament.uk
https://members.parliament.uk/member/43/career
[2]theyworkforyou.com
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/10263/lord_haselhurst
[3]api.parliament.uk
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/sir-alan-haselhurst/index.html
[4]cpahq.org
https://www.cpahq.org/about-us/our-governance/alan-haselhurst/
[5]politics.co.uk
https://www.politics.co.uk/reference/sir-alan-haselhurst/
[6]en.wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Haselhurst
[7]en.wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Haselhurst,_Baron_Haselhurst
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