Brazen Bercow pocketed £19k ‘severance pay’
... after going back on vow to quit by clinging on for extra 18 months
JoHn Bercow pocketed more than £19,000 in ‘severance pay’ when he stepped down as Commons Speaker last year, it emerged yesterday.
The payment was despite the fact he set his own departure date and announced it seven weeks in advance. He had also pledged to serve only nine years, but stayed 18 months longer to ‘oversee the Brexit process’.
government accounts show mr Bercow, 57, received the golden goodbye when he ‘retired’ from the £155,000-ayear job on october 31. Critics questioned why he was entitled to the ‘bumper’ sum, which comes on top of a million-pound pension pot that he did not have to contribute to.
The Speaker is covered by the same severance terms as ministers, who receive a quarter of their salary. The element of mr Bercow’s pay related to the role was £77,000 – on top of his mP salary. However, ministers typically lose jobs with no notice in Cabinet reshuffles.
His pay- off was bigger than the £18,860 handed to Theresa may, even though she was forced out of downing Street amid a Tory revolt over Brexit.
mr Bercow was elected as Speaker for the duration of the last Parliament, having first taken the chair in 2009, and said on September 9 last year that he would be giving up the job on october 31.
mr Bercow’s office blanked r equests f or comment on whether he accepted the money when he stepped down.
However, f i gures released in Treasury documents this week confirm the ‘severance’ payment of £19,221 was made. They also show that mr Bercow’s pension pot is worth £ 952,000, and will pay him £35,000 to £40,000 a year. mr
Bercow refused to follow the example of all prime ministers since gordon Brown in giving up the gold- plated pension provision, although he did concede that he will not draw on it until he turned 65.
John o’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be ticked off at being bounced into a bumper payout for Bercow.
‘This is yet another cost for a Speaker whose time culminated in wasteful expenditure and constant controversy.’
it previously emerged that mr Bercow had a ‘ retirement’ reception at Speaker’s House shortly before leaving the chair.
Some 150 mPs and staff attended the event. alongside the £3,696 bill for the party, the public purse also met ‘cleaning and removals’ costs.
Since quitting as Speaker and as an mP, mr Bercow has taken up posts as a university lecturer in London as well as launching a lucrative after-dinner speaking career.
during his controversial decade in the Speaker’s chair, mr Bercow – who has accused ministers of ‘conspiring’ to stop him getting a seat in the House of Lords – clashed with the government repeatedly over Brexit and faced criticism over allegations of bullying of staff, which he has always denied.