THE SNP’s Pete Wishart has launched an audacious bid to become the next Speaker of the House of Commons.

If picked for the role by his fellow MPs – the chances are very slim – the Perth and North Perthshire politician will be the first Speaker to “emerge from beyond the two main parties” since the Second World War.

The backbencher, who chairs the Scottish Affairs Committee of the Commons, is the latest MP to express an interest in the job, that is not yet vacant.

While current Speaker John Bercow had previously indicated he could stand down this summer, recent reports suggested he is keen to stay where he is until Brexit is sorted.

Launching his manifesto, Wishart said he would shake up the Commons, with “a clear reforming agenda” that will “make the House look and feel like a proper 21st-century institution.”

Key pledges from the SNP politician included electrical voting in a bid to end the current “medieval parliamentary” system.

He also promised to allow MPs to use their names in the Commons: “We all have names, and if they are good enough for us in all other day-to-day discourse, they should be good enough for the chamber of the House of Commons.

“All debates should continue to be made through the chair but we must start to speak to each other like ordinary human beings and address each other sensibly.”

There were promises to reform the hours Parliament sits, the rules around clapping in the chamber and also to end the dress code and let MPs choose “what they should or should not wear to work”.

Wishart said he would take some debates out of London to other parts of the UK.

He told MPs: “My pledge to you as your Speaker is to make Parliament look and feel like an institution that belongs to its age. I will put in place reforms so that all Members of Parliament are treated equally and I will do everything to make Parliament relevant to all members of our community and all parts of the United Kingdom.”

There have been calls for the next speaker to be a woman, with Labour’s Gloria de Piero and Tory Nicky Morgan saying in a joint article in the Times that another man would be a “setback” and a “missed opportunity”.

Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh and Labour’s Chris Bryant have both expressed an interest in the job.

Dame Eleanor Laing, currently Bercow’s deputy speaker, has also announced her interest.

Normal Parliamentary convention is that parties do not stand candidates against the Speaker during an election.

However, the SNP have previously rejected that convention. An SNP source said that would change: “We won’t stand against Pete, no.”