I am writing this on Sunday 17 May after reflecting on a tumultuous week at Westminster. The revelations in the Telegraph have generated widespread feelings of shock and revulsion.

I was out knocking on doors on Friday night with my friend David Whalley, the Labour candidate for Pendle Central in the forthcoming County Council elections on 4 June.

The reception I received was not hostile. But people were clearly angry and upset with what they were seeing on their televisions and reading in the press. They felt let down.

I talked about David, a man with a fine track record in Pendle, untainted by Westminster. He, of all people, cannot be blamed for the actions of others which have been so meticulously catalogued in the newspapers.

Nevertheless, I fear we are all tarred with the same brush. My own expenses will be posted on the internet by the Commons authorities within the next few weeks, at the same time as everyone else.

Next week is likely to be momentous. I predict (always dangerous) that Speaker Martin will stand down. I am more convinced of this than ever having listened to Nick Clegg on the Andrew Marr Show earlier today. He broke with convention and called on the Speaker to go.

Last week I, too, called on Michael Martin to go. It is inconceivable that he can preside over the new transparent and open Parliament that must be created urgently. He is, quite simply, the wrong man for the job.

I recall organising a “hustings” at Westminster in October 2000 after the previous Speaker, Betty Boothroyd, had announced her intention to retire.

I wrote to all the candidates (I think there were 13. Perhaps 12) inviting them all to a meeting in Committee Room 14 where they could present their own personal manifestos and take questions from colleagues from all Parties.

Two MPs, very senior and still in the House, wrote to thank me for taking this initiative but declined to attend saying, in both cases, they feared their independence as Speaker might be compromised by things they might say at the hustings.

All the others, save one, turned up and the hustings went ahead as planned.

The only candidate who did not even reply to my letter of invitation was Michael Martin.

The following day, after Speaker Martin had been elected, I was in the Members Tearoom having breakfast. It was early and there were no other MPs about.

To my astonishment, in walked the new Speaker, greeting me as “Mr Hustings”.

As he approached my table, he swivelled around, pointing to the empty chairs at the Labour end of the tearoom (there is a Conservative end and a Labour end!) and declared: “This is where I did my hustings!”

Partisan then and, I am afraid, partisan now.

In his time as Speaker he has been a disappointment to many who had hoped for better. The way in which he dumped on the Sergeant at Arms over the Damian Green affair was deplorable. He should have taken full responsibility himself for everything that happened.

Anyway, I have signed the motion of no confidence which is to be tabled tomorrow by the Conservative MP, Douglas Carswell.

His politics and mine are light years apart but he had the guts and gumption to set the ball rolling. Last week I talked to any number of senior (ie long serving) MPs, some in influential positions, who believed this was not the way to go about it.

Better a delegation to persuade him to go.

That, I replied, was never going to happen. We would get the usual immobilism. Who was going on the delegation? Who would lead it? Who would make it happen?

This talking shop solution was no answer at all.

Carswell’s motion has generated momentum and people are now speaking out in a way that would have been inconceivable even a few weeks ago.

His motion of no confidence must be debated and voted upon. I cannot for the life of me believe that it could be allowed to remain on the Order Paper, day in day out, and not be taken. Just imagine the endless Points of Order.

No, I believe the Speaker will be gone by the end of the week.

We cannot even begin to focus on other issues whilst this remains unresolved.