Bercow lecturing students in place of MPS

JOHN BERCOW has started his first paid job outside Parliament: as professor of politics at Royal Holloway University in north London.

The former Commons Speaker spent yesterday teaching undergraduates in the university. Royal Holloway said Mr Bercow would contribute to teaching “across the curriculum” but refused to say how much he would be paid nor how many days a week he was working.

It said: “He will provide our students with unique insights into Parliament and British politics more generally.”

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has reportedly recommended Mr Bercow for a peerage in the dissolution honours list, due to be published soon.

A Lords conduct committee this week discussed closing a “loophole” to allow inquiries into allegations against former MPS who become peers, after Lord Lisvane, a former Commons clerk, submitted allegations of bullying to a Parliamentary watchdog.

A university spokesman said: “In terms of the allegations, we are not able to comment as we understand they are being investigated.”

Mr Bercow had lunch with politics students and taught a parliamentary studies class at the university yesterday. He gave his first lecture last night.

Lewis Virgo, a student, said: “He was very happy and chatty. Lots of students came up to him and shook his hand.”

However, some academics were dismissive of the decision to award him a professorship so soon after he quit as Commons speaker in October.

Oliver Johnson, a maths professor at the University of Bristol, said he was getting “increasingly fed up with ‘professor’ getting used as a vanity title for the great and good, thereby devaluing the work of academics who spent their life putting the work in to get there.”