Two former cabinet ministers have called for further scrutiny of the proposed appointment of the new House of Commons clerk amid an ongoing row.
Ex-foreign secretaries Jack Straw and Margaret Beckett told the Guardian that Australian Carol Mills should face MPs in a hearing before taking up the role.
Commons Speaker John Bercow chose Ms Mills for the post, but some MPs have said her experience was insufficient.
Meanwhile, plans are in place to help run the Commons until the row is over.
Outgoing House of Commons clerk, Sir Robert Rogers, told the BBC's Newsnight he had taken "resilient" steps to safeguard operations up to the general election.
Newsnight chief correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said Sir Robert's measures would put pressure on the government to accept MPs' requests to hold pre-appointment hearings.
The appointment of the clerk, Parliament's most senior official, is made by the Queen on the recommendation of No 10.
The Commons clerk acts as the chief executive of the House and is responsible for the running of the property, and 2,000 staff on site.
But the clerk also serves as a senior constitutional adviser to senior politicians, including the prime minister.
Former Speaker Baroness Betty Boothroyd claimed Ms Mills would be "totally out of her depth" in the position.
'Controversy'Mr Straw and Mrs Beckett added their voices to the cross-party campaign for Ms Mills, who is head of the Department of Parliamentary Services of the Australian Senate in Canberra, to face a confirmation hearing.
"Given the controversy, and without making any observations about the relative merits of the candidate, I think that such pre-appointment scrutiny would be a good way of resolving this," Mr Straw, a former leader of the Commons, told the Guardian.
Mrs Beckett, who also served as leader of the Commons, told the newspaper: "These days you cannot make an appointment like this without select committee scrutiny."
The Speaker chaired the panel that selected Ms Mills for the £200,000-a-year job.
Opposing MPs have asked William Hague, the leader of the House, to intervene and block the appointment - or at least delay it.
Public Administration Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin has also written to David Cameron asking him to back a pre-appointment hearing.
The current row comes after Sir Robert announced his retirement after a 42-year career in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Mr Bercow has come under fire for overlooking the respected deputy clerk David Natzler for reasons of political correctness.
A source told Newsnight that initial steps had been taken towards an employment tribunal into the appointments process by Mr Natzler, who was one of the other applicants for the big job.
But sources close to Mr Bercow insisted that Ms Mills was chosen by a panel - not just the Speaker - of "people who were in the room scrutinise people in detail - they made the decision based on experience and skills".
An investigation is also being carried out into the way Ms Mills's department used CCTV cameras to monitor the office of a senator.
Conservative MP Michael Fabricant, a former vice-chairman of his party, questioned whether it was right to appoint a clerk who was "under investigation for a serious breach of parliamentary privilege".
He said: "I believe the Speaker has made the wrong choice... I also think there needs to be an inquiry into the circumstances of why Sir Robert Rogers retired early and the manner in which John Bercow chairs the House of Commons Commission."
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