Bercow will bend rules to halt No Deal, Boris warned
THE Prime Minister will find he has ‘met his match’ in Speaker John Bercow when the Commons returns tomorrow, a former parliamentary official has warned.
David Leakey, who was in charge of order in the House of Lords until 2017, said Mr Bercow would bend parliamentary conventions to the limit in a bid to thwart a No Deal Brexit.
He is expected to start by helping Remainers take control of Commons business tomorrow to enable them to pass a law preventing Boris Johnson from leaving the eU without a deal.
The intervention is likely to be crucial as opposition MPs seek to frustrate the Prime Minister.
Last week, the Commons Speaker sparked outrage when he issued a statement – while on holiday in Turkey – condemning Mr Johnson’s plans to prorogue Parliament as ‘a constitutional outrage’. Mr Leakey told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday that he believed Mr Bercow will help Remainers ‘because Boris Johnson has been bending the conventions in relation to prorogation’.
When challenged over the Commons Speaker’s own bending of convention, Mr Leakey said: ‘I think that Boris Johnson will meet his match in the form of Speaker Bercow in this sense.’ Mr Leakey was Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod from 2010 to 2017. The position is named after the black stick used to bang on the door of the House of Commons before each Queen’s Speech. The former Black Rod said the five weeks Mr Johnson plans to suspend Parliament for is a lot longer than needed.
‘Typically prorogation lasts for three or four days, sometimes five days, and critically it is to enable Parliament to arrange itself for the great theatre of the State Opening, the practical arrangements,’ he said.
‘So it doesn’t need to be longer than a few working days.’
Asked whether the Queen could have done anything other than assent to Boris Johnson’s request to prorogue, he said: ‘I don’t think the Queen could have done anything else there.
‘Not since 1708 when Queen Anne declined to give royal assent to a bill has the monarch taken a political stance on such an issue and I think this brings into stark focus the role of the Queen and the Queen’s relationship with Parliament and her position in the constitution.
‘And paramount in our constitution is parliamentary sovereignty and therefore I don’t think the Queen would want to gainsay what Parliament does.’
Mr Leakey’s comments come amid calls from some Tories to take measures to get rid of the Speaker at the next election.
At the weekend, Tory loyalists demanded Mr Bercow be punished for his ‘blatant Brexit bias’ by being booted out of his Commons constituency.
Allies of Mr Johnson called on party bosses to ditch convention
‘The Queen could not have refused’ ‘The reality is the gloves are off’
and field an official Conservative candidate against the Speaker in his Buckingham seat if a snap election is called. The move would end the Commons tradition that Speakers are not opposed by the major political parties when they stand for re-election.
Backbencher David Davies called on Tory chairman James Cleverly to intervene with the Buckingham Conservative Association to get them to field an official Tory candidate.
Mr Davies said: ‘The reality is now that the gloves are off. Remain-supporting MPs – including Mr Bercow – are using every trick in the book and tearing up all precedence to try to prevent the democratic voice of the public from being heard on Brexit. We have to fight this battle in the same way
‘If that means breaking the precedent of not standing against the Speaker in his constituency at the next general election, then so be it.’