Speaker on the rack as MP makes formal bid to oust him
Bercow ‘must go’ over Trump comments row
JOHN Bercow last night came under fresh attack for his Donald Trump rant, with a former minister making a formal bid to oust him.
The Commons Speaker faced calls to quit on Monday after he said the US President should be banned from addressing Parliament because of his ‘racism and sexism’.
Last night Tory backbencher James Duddridge tabled a Commons motion declaring that MPs no longer had any confidence in Mr Bercow.
The former minister said he had ‘overstepped the mark’ and had to go because his behaviour in the House had been ‘wholly inappropriate’.
Although the move is unlikely to lead to a Commons debate and a formal vote, Mr Duddridge hopes if enough MPs sign the motion, it will increase the pressure on Mr Bercow to resign. A similar no-confidence motion forced the resignation of his predecessor as Speaker, Michael Martin, in 2009.
Mr Duddridge told Sky News: ‘He has overstepped the mark a number of times but this most recent incident – where he used the Speaker’s chair to pronounce his views on an international situation in some quite detailed and lengthy manner – is wholly inappropriate and it means that he can no longer reasonably chair, as Speaker, any debate on those subjects. This has been happening more and more often from this modernising Speaker.
‘This is perhaps the straw that has broken the camel’s back.’
On Monday, Mr Bercow appeared to brand the US president ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ and said Mr Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries meant he was ‘even more strongly’ opposed to an invitation.
On Wednesday, Mr Duddridge wrote to Theresa May requesting ministers be given a free hand in any potential vote to topple Mr Bercow. Yesterday, he put down what is known as an ‘early day motion’, which MPs can sign to show their support for a course of action.
It will not necessarily be debated in the Commons and, as of last night, it had only one extra signature – that of fellow Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke.
In response to the early day motion, a spokesman for Mr Bercow said: ‘The Speaker has made his position clear... stands by that position and has nothing further to add.’