Bercow claim sparks MPs row
An ex-Commons clerk claims Speaker John Bercow called her a “little girl” when he could not find an envelope he was looking for.
Libby Bradshaw said calls for change in a report into bullying in the Commons are in “danger of being drowned by politics again”.
On a news website, Bradshaw wrote: “There has been a haemorrhage of talent from Parliament because of this issue alone and some of the brightest, most capable people I worked with are no longer there because of the treatment they received.
“The House of Commons Commission will have a large role in what happens next. The Commission is made up of some of these senior managers along with the Speaker who, when he was just a regular backbencher, once screamed at me and called me a ‘ little girl’ simply because he had been unable to find an envelope (which was exactly where I said it was, for the record).”
Tor y MPs ca l led for Bercow to quit after High Court judge Dame Laura Cox found a culture of “deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence” allowed mistreatment of Commons staff to thrive.
But Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said it was “absolutely not the time to be changing Speaker” due to uncertainty over Brexit.
A Bercow spokesman said the Spea ker had no recollection of the alleged incident.