MPs warn Bercow: Your time is now up
FRIENDS of John Bercow have visited him to urge him to name a date for his departure.
A string of MPs are understood to have spoken to the Commons Speaker privately to tell him his ‘time is up’.
They do not expect him to go by the end of the week – as he originally promised – but they want him to make a statement outlining a timetable for his departure.
Last night candidates to succeed Mr Bercow were said to be openly campaigning in the expectation that he will go. When he was elected, he promised he would step down after nine years – a deadline that he reaches tomorrow.
Mr Bercow has steadfastly refused to step down – and earlier this week his wife Sally tweeted she was not ‘packing her bags’. The pair share a grace and favour apartment in the Houses of Parliament.
One MP said: ‘I had all but given up hope on Bercow going but things are afoot. I know some people have visited Speaker Bercow privately and told him time is up.
‘There has been heavy campaigning from candidates to succeed him today. Some people clearly think there is a chance he will go soon. A narrative is growing that if we give him space, he will go within a year.’
There were rumours last night that MPs were collecting names for a letter calling on Mr Bercow to go. And there were plans to put down an ‘Early Day Motion’ in the Commons to urge the Speaker to honour his 2009 pledge. EDMs are a way to measure the strength of Commons feelings on major issues.
Possible Labour successors include Harriet Harman, the former acting Labour leader, Chris Bryant, former shadow Commons leader, and the current deputy speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
For the Tories, Charles Walker could also throw his hat into the ring. Some also say the other two deputy speakers – Dame Rosie Winterton and Dame Eleanor Laing – could also stand.
A series of MPs are understood to have spoken to Mr Bercow to urge him to make a statement before the end of the week about his future.
They have asked him to consider a compromise position, whereby he would not necessarily step down tomorrow but would announce a date for him to go.
The MPs said while they would be happy for him to stay until Christmas – or maybe, at a push, Easter – he must be gone by next year’s summer recess. On Monday night, Mrs Bercow responded to a campaigner who wants her husband to honour his pledge and go before tomorrow.
She tweeted: ‘On Friday, I look forward to a school visit, lunch with a friend, son’s football tournament and my mum coming to stay for the weekend. I haven’t started packing yet. Sorry to disappoint.’
Mrs Bercow also mocked previous attempts to unseat her husband, suggesting MPs always bottle the challenge in the end.
She wrote: ‘Just keeping eye out for fake news as last time Telegraph reported 150 MPs were out to remove John – but it turned out to be five.’
Last week pressure on the Speaker mounted after a minister branded his behaviour towards her as ‘sexist and demeaning’.
Energy minister Claire Perry wrote to the Speaker about a clash in the Commons, insisting ‘verbal violence’ against women was unacceptable.
Mrs Perry said she took the action because the Speaker should not give the impression he has a ‘women problem’.