Leader of House calls Bercow’s impartiality into question

MPs must decide whether Commons Speaker John Bercow is impartial enough to stay in his post after publicly stating he voted Remain, a senior Cabinet minister has said.

Leader of the Commons David Lidington warned there would be “strong” reaction to the remarks as he stressed the Speaker must retain the confidence of the whole House.

Mr Bercow was plunged into fresh controversy after a video emerged of him telling students at Reading University on February 3 that he voted to remain in the EU.

In the video, Mr Bercow says that immigration has been a good thing for Britain. He also referred to “untruths” during the Brexit campaign, and how “promises were made that could not be kept”, and expressed hopes that Parliament would maintain changes to working hours and health and safety protections after Brexit.

With Mr Bercow already facing a vote of no confidence because of his branding US President Donald Trump a “racist and sexist” as he effectively banned him from addressing Parliament during his state visit, a number of Tory MPs say his position as Speaker is no longer tenable.

Mr Lidington told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “There will be strong reaction among some MPs to what he said at Reading, particularly after what he said about the state visit earlier in the week.

“Ultimately, the Speaker has to command the confidence of the House of Commons as a whole.”

Mr Bercow’s spokeswoman said that how the Speaker cast his ballot in the Brexit poll, or Strictly Come Dancing, had no impact on his ability to deal fairly with all MPs.”

“In June 11 2011, Craigie asked if anyone could remember ‘the market’s smallest car’,” writes Mary Gladstone.

“This was how my late uncle, Major Angus Macdonald, killed 75 years ago in SE Asia, described to his mother in a letter home in early 1940, his most recent acquisition. It was a Fiat 500, nicknamed the Mickey Mouse car because it was small with head-lights that resembled a mouse’s ears.

“My uncle’s car played a vital part in the defence of Singapore before Britain surrendered to the Japanese in February 1942. In the end, Angus’s muchloved vehicle served as part of a roadblock set up to prevent invading tanks from entering the city.

“I wrote to Craigie to ask if any reader owned a Fiat 500 of that vintage and within a week, I was invited to Newtyle to see Doug Taylor’s model. As a hobby he renovated vintage cars, some from the 1930s. His dark red 1937 Fiat 500 was once in the possession of a policeman from Dundee. Mr Taylor rescued it from a shed and spent £1,700 on renovating its engine.

“When I visited his yard, I sat in the driver’s seat of the Fiat, which gave me an idea what it was like for my very tall relative (he was 6 foot 4 inches) to drive such a car. In Singapore he became a familiar sight beetling around with his head sticking through the Fiat’s sunshine roof.

“I want to say thank you again to Craigie and Mr Taylor who helped with my research in writing a book on my uncle. It is now complete and about to be published. ‘Largie Castle, a rifled nest’ by Mary Gladstone will be published on March 2, the 75th anniversary of my uncle’s death. It can be bought on Amazon or ordered from local bookstores.”

Picture: PA. John Bercow.

The cover of a book, termed the “Scottish Downton Abbey”. See more above.