Taxpayer’s £1,300 bill for Speaker’s shower door

COMMONS Speaker John Bercow splashed out more than £1,300 on a shower screen for his official residence – billing it to the taxpayer.

Official records for the Speaker’s expenses from 2010 onwards also show he spent £80 to repair a roller blind in a ‘baby bedroom’ at his grace-and-favour apartments in Westminster which he shares with his wife Sally and their three children.

Shower screens are available for as little as £35 over the internet – a fraction of the £1,320 cost of Mr Bercow’s screen. Mr Bercow’s spokesman said: ‘ The shower cubicle needed to be repaired as a screen had become faulty and beyond economical repair, as well as dangerous.

‘This work was undertaken on the advice of the House maintenance team and not as a result of a request by the Speaker.’

The figures released under the Freedom of Information Act also show Mr Bercow spent £45,825.68 on travel over the same period, most of it on international flights.

The Speaker also displayed a fondness for official cars.

He repeatedly spent £74.40 for a return journey to the neighbouring London postcode of SE1, which is no more than £20 return in a taxi.

The spokesman added: ‘The Speaker has an extensive outreach programme and therefore undertakes significant travel.’