Public does not want no-deal Brexit, says Bercow in parting shot
Outgoing Speaker says UK exit must be orderly as ministers attempt to stop Harman succeeding him
BRITONS do not want a no-deal Brexit, John Bercow has said in an outspoken attack on a key policy of Boris Johnson’s Government to prepare for one.
The news came as it emerged that Cabinet ministers have launched an “anyone but Harriet” campaign to stop Harriet Harman being made speaker of the Commons when Mr Bercow steps down in seven weeks’ time.
Mr Bercow told a private party of 500 City lawyers and clients last week that the majority of Britons do not want the UK to leave the European Union without a deal at the end of next month.
He told the reception at DLA Piper’s offices in the City of London that people would much prefer “an arrangement that is orderly by comparison with an unsolicited and not desired sudden ejection”.
“I think it would be accurate to say that most people, including those who advocated Brexit, did advocate Brexit with some sort of agreement. And if in fact that isn’t what emerges, that will be extremely challenging,” he added.
Mr Bercow also expanded on his decision to vote to remain in the 2016 referendum, saying he wanted the UK to be part of the EU because it was a power and trade bloc.
The comments risk a row over Mr Bercow’s conduct as Speaker because House of Commons rules state he “is the chief officer and highest authority of the House of Commons and must remain politically impartial at all times”.
The Speaker also defended himself against critics who say he has bent the rules in the Commons to suit his view that the UK should remain in the EU
He said: “Some of my detractors … have said, ‘ oh well, the Speaker has inappropriately changed the rules’.
“I have not changed any rule, there is no rule that I have broken, no rule that I have defied, no standing order that I have tossed aside.
“In some cases, the rules have been written in relatively vague and even opaque terms and the responsibility of the Speaker is to interpret the rules.
“And what I have sought to do is flexibly to interpret in order to facilitate the will of the House.”
A spokesman for the Speaker’s Office said: “The question of how Mr Speaker voted in the referendum is old news – disclosed by him two and a half years ago. It hasn’t made the slightest difference to the way he chairs the chamber, which is to ensure all voices and views are heard, fairly and without favour.”
MPs will whittle down the current shortlist of eight candidates to be speaker over a series of votes on Nov 4, overseen by Ken Clarke, the longestserving MP and Father of the House, a few days after Mr Bercow quits after his decade in the chair on Oct 31. Conservative MPs are desperate to unite behind a rival to Ms Harman, a former deputy prime minister, who launched her bid to be speaker late last week on a “great reform agenda”. One Cabinet minister told The Sunday Telegraph: “We have to stop Harriet”, adding that they are throwing their weight behind respected Labour deputy speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle. A second Cabinet minister added: “It has to be Lindsay Hoyle. He is the only one who can restore balance.”
Mr Hoyle heads a field that also includes Tory Dame Eleanor Laing, former Labour minister Chris Bryant, who has written a history of Parliament, and Tory MP Shailesh Vara, who is respected across the Commons. A friend of Sir Lindsay – who has been Mr Bercow’s deputy for nine years – said: “It is about Parliament having their voice – not about the speaker having their voice.”
But a Tory friend of Dame Eleanor, a deputy speaker since 2013, said: “Lindsay Hoyle is pretending that he is really a Conservative to get our votes. “Eleanor has proved, during six years in the chair, that she is fair and impartial. She is a lawyer. She gets it on procedure and constitutional law. Lindsay just hasn’t got that.” “Lindsay can’t beat Harriet. They would just split the Labour vote. Only Eleanor can beat them both.” Mr Bryant added: “I just want to use my knowledge of the history and the rulebook to keep good order and help Parliament steer a steady course. We need a speaker who is an umpire, not a player, a speaker who has no favourites and whose only prejudice is in favour of backbenchers. A speaker who is authoritative but will never bully a colleague from the chair.”
For her part, Ms Harman – who as longest-serving female MP is styled as the “Mother of the House” – told The Guardian: “The idea that I am in the mould of John Bercow, as somebody asked me – I’ve never been in the mould of any man. I’m my own woman.”
‘I think it would be accurate to say that most people who advocated Brexit, did advocate Brexit with some sort of agreement’