Bercow was handed £19k severance pay
JOHN BERCOW was awarded £19,000 in severance pay when he left Parliament despite setting his own departure date announced seven weeks in advance, it has emerged.
Mr Bercow, the former Speaker, promised several times to stand down during his career but finally left Parliament after a row with the Government over Brexit last October.
Figures acquired by Mailonline show Mr Bercow was paid £19,000 in severance pay when he left – more than Theresa May’s severance package when she resigned as Prime Minister.
Mr Bercow was paid £ 1 55,000 in his role as Speaker, and occupied a grace-and-favour residence on the Parliamentary estate.
The size of his severance package may come as a surprise to Theresa May, who was paid £18,860 when she was forced from Downing Street by Tory rebels, and sacked Cabinet ministers George Osborne and Nicky Morgan, both of whom were paid around £16,000 when they were sacked in a Cabinet reshuffle.
Ministers receive a quarter of their annual salary if they are sacked in a reshuffle.
Mr Bercow was allowed to choose when he stood down, and announced it seven weeks in advance of his departure. Since leaving office he has taken up a position as a part-time professor of politics at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Boris Johnson broke a 230-year precedent of elevating former Speakers to the House of Lords when Downing Street declined to appoint him in the New Year’s honours. An attempt by Labour to nominate Mr
Bercow was blocked. The former Speaker was criticised during for his use of official expenses, including a £172 bill for a 0.7-mile car journey from Parliament to Carlton House Terrace.
In his last months in office, Mr Bercow spent more than £12,000 on leaving parties for Commons officials, plus £1,000 for a taxi from London to Nottingham.
Treasury documents released this week show he received £19,221 and leaves with a pension pot worth £952,000. A representative of Mr Bercow was contacted for comment.