No red carpet for defector Bercow

YOU might have thought Labour’s most highprofile defector in a generation would get the VIP treatment when he made his first appearance at the party conference last night. But not a bit of it.

If former Speaker John Bercow expected the red carpet, he was sorely disappointed. Despite predictable applause as he ripped into the Tories at a fringe event outside the main conference hall, there was no sign of leader Sir Keir Starmer to welcome him, no photographs with party big-wigs.

Diehard Remainer Bercow, who quit the Tories during the summer after more than 40 years complaining they had become ‘populist’, is the first Speaker in more than 200 years not to enter the House of Lords.

He was widely thought to have demeaned the historic office in his political machinations to block Brexit. Worse still, he is the subject of toxic and unresolved bullying allegations: the former Commons Clerk made a formal complaint against him last January, as did a former Black Rod, the most senior official in the Commons.

Time has not been so kind to Bercow since he lost the trappings of his office as Speaker. He looks older, his hair whiter and he has virtually sunk from public view beyond shouting his catchphrase ‘Orderrrrrrr’ on the website Cameo for £83 a time.

A source in Starmer’s camp tells me: ‘We are keeping him at a distance because there’s a lot of unresolved issues about Bercow.’