Speaker calls for polling day bank holiday

Polling day should become a bank holiday to get more people to vote, the Speaker of the House of Commons has said.

John Bercow made the remarks in a speech in Stourbridge to commemorate Second World War MI6 agent Frank Foley.

In a lecture at Old Swinford Hospital School, Mr Bercow called the decline in voter turnout at elections the "quiet crisis of UK electoral participation".

He made the comments in front of an audience of school pupils and dignitaries and said the 32 per cent turnout in the local elections on May 3 was the lowest since 2000.

He said: "The introduction of the Fixed Term Parliament bill, now Act, does create an opportunity. We now know that the next General Election is due to take place on May 7 2015.

"We also know that we always have two public holidays in the month of May every year. Why not swap one of them over so that the General Election date itself is a public holiday and a celebration of democracy?

"This would involve no additional cost to business or anyone else."