Bercow stays to kill off Brexit’

And guess which MPs persuaded him not to quit – Tory Remainers Clarke, Grieve and Letwin

JOHN BERCOW has abandoned plans to announce his resignation as Commons Speaker later this month after being persuaded to stay on by anti-Brexit Tory MPs, friends told The Mail on Sunday.

Until last week’s decision by European Union leaders to allow Brexit to be delayed until the end of October, Mr Bercow had intended to make a statement to the Commons on April 23 declaring that he was finally making way for a successor after ten years in the job.

But he is understood to have now ‘ripped up’ the statement after coming under ‘huge pressure’ to stay put from pro-Remain MPs.

The plan will be greeted with dismay by Downing Street, which has been engaged in running battles with Mr Bercow over Theresa May’s thwarted Brexit deal.

The Speaker has infuriated No10 by calling unhelpful amendments and trying to block MPs from voting on her deal more than once.

And pro-Brexit MPs will interpret it as part of a plot to stop the UK from ever leaving the EU.

It comes as Mrs May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn prepare for further talks in the coming days to try to assemble support for Mrs May’s deal – with Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay leading cross-party working groups on issues such as environmental protection and consumer rights.

A source close to Mr Bercow said that the Speaker had ‘listened closely’ to requests from Conservative MPs including Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin and former Chancellor Ken Clarke, along with Labour MPs Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper: all five have used parliamentary stratagems to either soften or overturn Brexit.

This newspaper revealed in January that Mr Grieve had secretly met Mr Bercow in his grace-andfavour Commons apartment the day before the Speaker tore up the rule book to allow the former Attorney General to table an amendment which led to the Commons wresting control of Brexit from the Prime Minister.

Pro-Brexit MPs accused Mr Bercow of ignoring centuries of convention, overriding the advice of his officials and ignoring his duty to be impartial by mounting a ‘stitch-up’ over the amendment.

The source said: ‘The MPs have put him under huge pressure not to leave the Chair until Brexit is sorted. He is now unlikely to give any hint of his going until after the summer recess at the earliest – and may well wait to see if the new October 31 deadline is met before hanging up his boots.

‘Ken Clarke – who John listens to more than any other MP – was a particularly decisive voice, telling him that it was his duty to stay.’

Mr Bercow’s ‘sit-in’ is likely to lead to moves by pro-Brexit MPs to try to oust him through a no-confidence motion.

The main contenders to succeed Mr Bercow are deputy speakers Lindsay Hoyle and Dame Eleanor Laing, and Labour’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman.

It also means he will have to delay a lucrative speaking tour of America which he had planned to undertake over the summer.

EU leaders agreed during Wednesday’s late-night Brussels summit that the UK would remain a member of the EU until October 31, but with the option to leave earlier if Mrs May can secure Commons support for her deal.

It means that the ‘cliff-edge’ no deal scenario is off the table until Halloween.

A Downing Street source said yesterday that reports that Labour frontbenchers Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey had clashed openly during the Brexit talks were ‘categorically untrue’.

The source said: ‘These talks have been constructive and serious – and both sides want to see further progress over the Easter recess. If we can keep up the pace of negotiations, we can get a deal over the line and avoid participating in the European Parliamentary elections.’

A spokesman for the Speaker’s Office said: ‘The Speaker was elected by the House in 2017 for the course of the Parliament. In the event he has anything to say on his future plans, he will make an announcement to the House first.’

A poll published yesterday showed the Tories falling seven points behind Labour, their lowest level in five years.

The Opinium survey put Labour on 36, the Tories on 29 and the Lib Dems on eight.

‘He was told it was his duty not to go’