MPs pick reformist Conservative as speaker

By Matt Falloon and Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - MPs picked a 46-year-old moderate Conservative to drive reform as speaker of parliament's lower house on Monday, but analysts say fixing the damage after an expenses scandal will take more than a new face.

Moderniser John Bercow, who has served as a member of parliament since 1997, takes over from Michael Martin after he was forced to step down because of dissatisfaction with his handling of the far-reaching expenses affair.

Politicians from all the big parties have pledged to clean up and reform parliament after media disclosures about their taxpayer-funded allowance claims, which have ranged from moat cleaning to pornography and already-paid mortgages.

Opinion polls show the scandal has most affected the ruling Labour party, which is tipped to lose the next election due by mid-2010, but the main opposition Conservatives made only limited gains in this month's European elections.

Bercow, seen by many MPs as a more progressive alternative to a raft of older frontrunners, saw off nine other candidates including former Labour foreign minister Margaret Beckett and 67-year-old Conservative baronet George Young.

"We have faced quite the most testing of times, it has been a gruelling experience, many members feel sore and very vulnerable but large sections of the public also feel angry and disappointment -- we do have to reform," Bercow told parliament, referring to the fallout from the expenses scandal.

"But I continue to believe that the vast majority of this House (of Commons) are upright, decent, honourable people who have come into politics not to feather their nest but because they have heeded the call of public service."

Bercow beat Young in a final ballot, taking 322 of 593 votes cast.