OUT OF ORDER!
Corbyn faces backlash over bid to get Bercow a peerage (and he wants one for Watson, too)
JEREMY Corbyn faced a backlash last night after reportedly nominating John Bercow for a peerage.
MPs said the former Commons Speaker – who has faced allegations that he bullied staff – would have to pass vetting by the House of Lords Appointments Commission before the move was approved.
Mr Corbyn’s decision is surprising as Mr Bercow is a former Right-wing Tory MP. During parliamentary rows over Britain’s departure from the EU, the Speaker was accused of helping the opposition to thwart Brexit.
Upon his resignation last year, he became the first holder of the office in 230 years not to be offered a Lords seat. It is not known whether he would sit as a Labour peer or a non-partisan crossbencher under the plan.
Labour’s former deputy Tom Watson – who repeatedly clashed with Mr Corbyn – and Mr Corbyn’s chief of staff Karie Murphy also appear on the eight-strong list of dissolution honours nominations put forward by the Labour chief, according to The Sunday Times.
Miss Murphy is accused of failing to tackle anti-Semitism in the party – an issue which the Equality and Human Rights Commission is currently investigating and due to report on soon. The Jewish Labour Movement said her nomination was ‘deeply inappropriate and must be rescinded immediately’. ‘Jeremy Corbyn is using his final weeks in office to reward failure,’ the group added.
The decision to nominate Mr
Bercow is surprising as he was once a member of the Rightwing Monday Club which called for the ‘repatriation’ of immigrants. Following his resignation as Speaker, he admitted he thought Brexit was Britain’s biggest post-war mistake. He denies he bullied staff. Martin Vickers, the Tory MP for Cleethorpes, said: ‘Some will be delighted that John has been nominated after trying to stop Brexit and inadvertently giving the Conservatives our biggest majority in decades. I am just glad the nomination did not come from my party.’
Labour leadership contender Jess Phillips called for the bullying claims against Mr Bercow to be investigated by Parliament.
Also said to be on the list are allies of John McDonnell, including Prem Sikka, a professor of accounting who is one of the Shadow Chancellor’s ‘favourite economists’. Sue Hayman, the former environment spokesman, is also reported to be the list after she lost her Workington seat at the election.
Labour refused to comment but did not deny reports about the names put forward.
IT’S said you can tell a man by the friends he keeps. Notwithstanding his links to terrorists, you can also glean much about Jeremy Corbyn from those he hypocritically confers with peerages.
This lifelong opponent of the House of Lords has egregiously nominated John Bercow to be clad in ermine.
Why? Because the preening ex-Commons Speaker conspired with Labour to try and kill off Brexit. Happily, they failed.
It gets worse. Corbyn repugnantly believes Tom Watson, his former deputy, should also become a peer. Yet Watson supported grotesque lies that distinguished figures – including war heroes – were paedophiles. He should be leaving public life in disgrace.
The Lords is already stuffed with cronies and chancers. If this odious duo join, its reputation will sink further into the sewer.