at the 9/11 memorial. live coverage of the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on c-span. c-span 3, and online at c-span.org. or listen live on the free c-span radio app. >> the speaker of the house of commons, john, announced today he will step down as speaker. the news conference as the u.k. parliament is about to be suspended. he will officially resign on october 31, that's the deadline for britain to leave the europe

uniunion. -- european union. mr. bercow: i promised my wife and children that it would be my last. this is a pledge that i intend to keep. for house votes tonight an early general election, my tenure as speaker m.p. will end when this parliament ends. if the house does not so vote,

i have concluded that the least disruptive and most democratic will be to tion stand down at the close of business on thursday, october 1. [laughter] least disruptive because that date will fall shortly after the votes on the green speech expected on 21st and 22nd, october.

it will be best to have an experienced figure in the chair. most democratic because it will -- balance balanced is held when all members have some knowledge of the andidates. this is far preferable to a contest at the beginning of a parliament when new m.p.'s will not be similarly informed and may find themselves vulnerable undue institutional

influence. would not want anyone to be with senseless, would we? [laughter] roughout my time as speaker, i have sought to increase the relative authority of this legislature for which i will make absolutely no apology for nyone anywhere at anytime. to deploy a perhaps dangerous

phrase, i have also sought to be the back benchers' backstop. [laughter] without the o so small but superb am in speaker's house, the wider house stuff, my buckingham constituents, and and all, my wife, sally, ur three children, oliver, freddie, and jermima. [applause]

from the bottom of my heart, i thank them all protuesdayly. i -- profusely. i also could not have served without the repeated support of this house and its members, past and present. this is a wonderful place filled overwhelmingly by people who are motivated by their otion of the national interest , by perception of the public

as not as delegates, but representatives to do what they believe is right for our country. we degrade this parliament at our peril. i have served as a member of arliament for 22 years and for -- this has been -- let me put it explicitly. the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life for which i will be eternally rateful.

i wish my successor in the fortune in y best standing up for the rights of honorable and right honorable and for dividually parliament institutionally as the speaker of the house of commons. thank you. [applause]

>> you really are a very, very generous bunch of people, indeed. and thank you on both sides of the house, for which i richly appreciate. i love this place. you love this place. and we look forward to the future with interest and anticipation and enthusiasm. and final order, leader of the opposition, mr. jeremy corbin. mr. corbin: i want to put on record my thanks to you for being a superb speaker of the house. my thanks to you as a colleague in parliament. and my thanks to your family for the way in which they supported you so often -- through often very difficult times when the media has been unfair to you.

and your two sons are getting good at football. i did some kicks with them in the speaker's court the other day. i was very impressed, actually. they're coming on well. i know you support the same club as me. mr. speaker, in your role as speaker, you've totally changed the way in which the job has been done. you've reached out to people across the whole country. you visited schools. you visited factories. you visited offices. you talked to people about the role of parliament and democracy. i've never forgotten you come to sit in with my constituency and spending the morning with me talk to a group of students all of which had learning difficulties and we discussed with them the roles of democracy and parliament. and you've taken absolutely on ard the words of speaker lentil, that you are there to be guided and work on behalf of parliament. for parliament is stronger

you being the speaker. whatever you do when you finally step down from parliament, you do so with the thanks of a very large number of people. and one that's made the role of speaker in the house more powerful, not less powerful. i welcome that. and as somebody who aspires to hold executive office, i like the office of a powerful parliament holding the executive to account. it's something i've spent the last -- mr. bercow: it's something i spent the last 35 years doing myself. mr. corbyn: enjoy the last short period in your office but it's going to be the most dramatic it has been and i think your choice of timing and date is incomparable and will be recorded in the history books of parliament through democracy. mr. speaker, on behalf of the labour party, i thank you for your work in promoting democracy and this house. thank you. kopp kopp [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

visit ncicap.org] >> and the speaker of house of commons, john bercow, announced he will be stepping down as speaker on october 31. that's a deadline for britain to leave the european union. on capitol hill, the house will be gaveling back in at 4:30 eerp time working on energy bills today. and we expect to take you live to capitol hill for a briefing by democrats on gun violence legislation. scheduled to start in about 40 minutes, 3:00 p.m. eastern time here on c-span. >> for 40 years, c-span has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events from washington, d.c., and around the country. so you can make up your own mind. created by cable in 1979, c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government.