Out of order

Apowerful and influential executive, with an international profile, has been accused of bullying and verbally abusing his staff. Normally, the Labour Party would be demanding this individual’s resignation and would certainly not be conniving in his preferment.

But we are talking here about John Bercow, the former Commons Speaker, for whom the usual rules of proper behaviour have apparently been waived. He has been nominated for a peerage by Jeremy Corbyn, in keeping with a long tradition of the ennoblement of former Speakers. It is seen as an honour to the Commons that the first among them should go to the Upper House on retirement.

But that is because the Speaker would usually have spent his time in the chair behaving as a non-partisan umpire between the various parties. Mr Bercow patently did not. If anything, he worsened the divisions. So why should he now expect the elevation bestowed upon his predecessors?

Several senior officials working in Parliament during Mr Bercow’s 10 years as Speaker have testified to his appalling behaviour, yet he has effectively accused them of lying. What is extraordinary is the lengths to which Labour will go to defend someone who in any other walk of life they would be denouncing from the rooftops.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, took the prize for the most asinine comment by saying that one accuser, David Leakey, the former Black Rod, could not possibly have been bullied because he had been in the Army. The sheer humbug is breathtaking. In the view of Mr Leakey, a peerage for Mr Bercow would damage the reputation of Parliament even further. We agree.