Dogged by claims of bullying and bias, Bercow bows out
The Speaker enraged Brexiteer MPS by branding No10’s decision to suspend Parliament ‘an outrage’
THE writing had been on the wall for John Bercow for some time, but the ink became indelible on Sunday, when Andrea Leadsom confirmed the Conservative Party would defy convention and put up a candidate against him in the next election.
The move appeared almost certain to lead to the MP for Buckingham losing his seat, which boasts a 18,000 majority – hence his decision to stand down either after the election or on Oct 31, whichever is sooner.
In describing Mr Bercow as having “not just bent the rules but broken them”, the Business Secretary – who was once described by the Speaker as a “stupid woman” and “f–––ing useless” – echoed the view of many MPS who have called out his perceived Brexit bias since the 2016 EU referendum.
The final straw for Downing Street came after Mr Bercow not only spoke out against the Prime Minister’s move to suspend Parliament, but also used Commons procedure to facilitate the successful move by pro-remain MPS to block no deal.
Describing Mr Bercow’s decision to allow MPS to take over the parliamentary timetable as a “flagrant abuse”, Ms Leadsom criticised the Speaker for acting “in complete disregard to the will of the people – not just on Brexit, but on whom they have chosen to govern them”.
Mr Bercow, 56, who voted Remain in 2016, had enraged Brexiteer MPS the previous week by interrupting his holiday in Turkey to brand the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue parliament a “constitutional outrage”. It came after he told an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe that he would fight any attempt by Mr Johnson to suspend Parliament “with every bone in my body”. Although praised as a modernising Speaker – creating Westminster’s first Youth Parlia- ment, introducing proxy voting and loosening rules on wearing ties – like his Damascene conversion from hard Right to soft Left, his 10 years in the chair were not without controversy.
The married father-of-three had been active in student politics at the University of Essex (he is now chancellor) when he was the last national chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students from 1986-87. The group raised eyebrows by producing literature carrying the slogan “Hang Nelson Mandela”. It was disbanded by Norman Tebbit, then party chairman, who made Mr Bercow vice-chairman of its successor, the Conservative Collegiate Forum.
But it was his membership of the hard-right Monday Club from 1981-82 that would come back to haunt him, after it emerged that despite being descended from Romanian Jews he supported a programme of “assisted repatriation” for immigrants. Described by another former member as “a great admirer of Enoch Powell” at the time, Mr Bercow has since described his involvement in the group, when he made speeches attacking gays and feminists, as “utter madness” and dismissed his views from that time as “boneheaded”.
In 1986, Mr Bercow was elected as a Conservative councillor in the London borough of Lambeth but twice failed to be selected as the party’s candidate at the 1987 and 1992 general elections.
When he was finally elected in 1997, he quickly rose up the junior ranks while moving towards the centre of Conservative politics, which many MPS attribute to his 2003 marriage to the Labour-supporting Sally Illman. (Their relationship hit the headlines in 2015 when Sally admitting to having an affair with her husband’s cousin.)
Mr Bercow’s political U-turn was so pronounced that at one stage there were rumours that he might defect to Labour after holding talks with Gordon Brown’s government. After being aptuesday
pointed and quitting the shadow cabinet under Iain Duncan Smith and being appointed and fired by Michael Howard, Mr Bercow quietly campaigned to replace Michael Martin as Speaker and was appointed the 157th incumbent of the Commons chair in 2009. Propelled to power by Labour, rumour has it just three Tories supported his candidacy.
Last night, a senior government source described Mr Bercow as a “w––––r no one outside the Westminster bubble had heard of ”.
That might have been the case before 2016, but thanks to his outspoken interventions during EU debates – and that “B––––––s to Brexit” bumper sticker – the tennis-loving Arsenal fan became a household name.
During the last three years, he courted criticism for perceived proremain “bias” after he was accused of breaking precedent and ignoring the officials’ advice by “unilaterally changing” parliamentary rules to allow a government motion on the meaningful vote on the PM’S Withdrawal Agreeguage, ment to be amended by Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general.
Mr Bercow said at the time: “If we were guided only by precedent, manifestly nothing in our procedures would ever change.”
But a month later, he refused to allow subsequent meaningful votes on the Brexit deal, citing “strong and longstanding” parliamentary precedents dating back to 1604.
Last October, Mr Bercow told friends he intended to stand down as Speaker in the summer, following a damning report on the failure of high-level figures in Parliament to deal adequately with bullying of staff at Westminster.
Dame Laura Cox’s report condemned a culture in which abusive behaviour was “tolerated and covered up”. Mr Bercow also faced allegations of bullying, after two former clerks – David Leakey, the former Black Rod; and his former private secretary, Angus Sinclair – complained.
Mr Sinclair said he faced angry outbursts, undermining, obscene lanand mimicry – as well as having a phone smashed on his desk. He was paid £86,250 when he quit in 2010 in a deal that required him to promise not to speak about his experiences.
In 2011, Kate Emms, Mr Sinclair’s successor, was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder after less than a year working for Mr Bercow.
Mr Leakey described the Speaker as “genuinely intimidating” and revealed that he had personally experienced his bad temper. He said: “His explosive and intemperate behaviour is legendary, objectionable and unworthy of someone in such public office – conduct which may not stand up to the standards expected in public life. There were lots of people who were, frankly, terrified of the Speaker.”
Mr Bercow strenuously denied the claims and defied calls to quit. His decade-long tenure makes him the longestserving Speaker since Edward Fitzroy served 15 years between 1928 and 1943, and the first Speaker since Fitzroy to serve under four prime ministers.