Only STV can solve this conundrum.

UKIP’s recent announcement that its Leader, Nigel Farage MEP, will challenge Speaker John Bercow in his Buckingham constituency at the next general election raises an interesting constitutional conundrum, which is unanswerable with First Past The Post elections.

On the one hand, the tradition of not opposing Mr Speaker is a valuable convention to protect his neutrality. On the other hand, the tradition virtually disenfranchises his constituents; they do not have a choice of candidates at elections and their MP cannot vote in their interests or ask questions in the House for them.

STV would solve the problem. All parties could put up candidates for the five or so seats in the multi-member constituency. To protect the Speaker’s neutrality and help his re-election, they could recommend voters to vote for the Speaker as their first choice. They could then further their own campaigns and give voters a genuine choice by asking voters to vote for the party as 2nd and 3rd choice etc. After the election, the voters would not be disenfranchised because, In addition to the Speaker, they would have about four other MPs to represent them.