Former Speaker’s 130-mile taxi ride cost £1,000

FORMER COMMONS Speaker John Bercow splashed out £1,000 on a taxi for a 130-mile journey that could have cost as little as £67 by train.

The Mail Online reported that Mr Bercow, who stood down before the election, enjoyed a spending spree in his final months in the job.

His expenses bill included paying out £1,003 for a return taxi journey from Westminster to Nottingham in order to give a speech in April.

Aides say he was encouraged not to take public transport to Nottingham Trent University, where he was speaking about how Parliament should respond to the “anti-politics age”, because of “security concerns”.

“Due to heightened security concerns for the safety of MPs, Mr Bercow was advised it was safer for him to travel to the University of Nottingham by taxi, rather than by train,” a spokeswoman for the Commons told Mail Online.

Mr Bercow also enjoyed a £7,000 jaunt around the US during the end of his tenure, according to details from a Freedom of Information request submitted by the news website.

His expenses – paid by taxpayers – included a £118-a-month subscription to Sky for Speaker’s House, the apartment within the Palace of Westminster where Mr Bercow resided with his family.

The former Conservative MP also left the public with a £12,000 bill for leaving parties.

It included an invoice of £3,168 for a “retirement” party for Speaker’s chaplain Rose Hudson-Wilkin. Rather than retire, she became the Bishop of Dover.

Mr Bercow also spent £2,376 on a retirement party for the Commons invitations secretary in February and a month later another £3,187 for a formal farewell to the Clerk of the House, David Natzler.