Bercow: I drove my wife to cheat by neglecting her
‘Unacceptable behaviour’
John Bercow has admitted he bears ‘some responsibility’ for driving his wife into the arms of his cousin – saying he had not been a good husband.
Plugging his memoirs, the former Commons Speaker opened up about his wife Sally’s affair with Alan Bercow in 2015 as he revealed he had been ‘inconsiderate’ and had not ‘found enough time for her’.
And he said his wife had made a mistake by posing for a magazine photograph wrapped in a sheet while overlooking the houses of Parliament.
Mr Bercow uses his memoirs to launch a tirade against Tory ministers – accusing Andrea Leadsom of ‘weaponising’ the issue of bullying to damage him. he described Mrs Leadsom, the former Leader of the house who tackled bullying and intimidation in Parliament, as ‘nasty’ and ‘bigoted’.
he hit out at David Cameron as a ‘24carat snob’, claimed Michael Gove was ‘oleaginous’ and described William hague as a ‘weirdo’.
Mr Bercow also accused Boris Johnson of cheating at tennis against him. he said: ‘he didn’t cheat by trying to fiddle the score, but he wasn’t using what I would call a legitimate ball. What he did was pick balls from where there was a lot of grass. They obviously hadn’t been used for years... (but) he took his 6-0 6-0 6-0 defeat with very good grace.’
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Mr Bercow was asked about his wife Sally, who posed for the bedsheets picture before her relationship with his cousin.
Mrs Bercow started an affair with Alan Bercow, a lawyer, during the 2015 election campaign. They briefly moved in together, but he later went back to his wife Erica.
The ex-Speaker said: ‘The case of the so-called bedsheet she was lured into... She admits that she made a mistake. Whereas obviously there has to be a reason why somebody has an affair. At the time she was feeling down, miserable, rather neglected.
‘She thought I was enormously focused on what I was doing, but that the balance was wrong and I wasn’t finding enough time for her, so I bear some responsibility for that. Did she later regret it? It’s clear she did and she said so. Do I bear a grudge? Absolutely not.’
Asked how he found out about the affair, he said: ‘Sally told me... She indicated she was sorry...but he was understanding and supportive and she wanted to be with him. of course I was upset, I am human. But did I feel intense anger? no.’ Asked if he was a good husband, Mr Bercow said: ‘Clearly I wasn’t good enough. Frankly, I could do better. Was I an innocent party terribly let down? no. I had not been as good a husband as I should’ve been.’
Mr Bercow’s chances of being elevated to the Lords were hit last month when Lord Lisvane, clerk of the house of Commons from 2011 to 2014, filed an official bullying complaint against him.
And Lieutenant General David Leakey, a former Black Rod, also revealed he was filing his own complaint of ‘intimidation and unacceptable behaviour’ by Mr Bercow, who was Speaker for ten years.
Mrs Leadsom, who is now Business Secretary, campaigned against bullying when she was Leader of the house, saying it came from the top. In one debate, Mr Bercow was accused of calling her a ‘stupid woman’, although he claims he just said ‘stupid’.
In his book, he goes further – describing her as ‘nasty’, ‘bigoted’ and ‘deluded’, saying she had a ‘near pathological hatred of me’.
he dismissed Lt Gen Leakey as a credible witness, accusing him of being motivated by publicity. Asked how he felt when Mr Johnson won the election last month, Mr Bercow said: ‘ To be honest, sorry. Because I knew it meant Brexit would definitely go ahead, and that’s a negative for the country.’ In the book, he said Mr Cameron ‘was a 24-carat snob’, ‘petulant’ when he didn’t get his own way and ‘prone to fits of pique and inclined to flare up over some real or imagined slight’.
Elsewhere, Michael Gove is ‘oleaginous’ and ‘propagandistic’ and William hague is ‘ a weirdo’, ‘robotic, cold and uninspiring’.