Campaign against Bercow’s Clerk plan reaches 84 supporters

Monday will be a busy day in the Commons. Speaker Bercow is expected to give a statement on the swelling row over his plan to appoint Carol Mills as Clerk of the House (or another mysterious new role that he’s considering concocting in an attempt to calm the feud with backbenchers).

That feud is getting more and more vocal, so Bercow had better have something decent to tell MPs when he does speak. The early day motion tabled by Jesse Norman and Natascha Engel will only appear on the order paper on Monday, but the campaign has 84 supporters now (not all will sign the motion as some avoid EDMs out of principle). Since Coffee House revealed the original list, Nigel Dodds, Cheryl Gillan, Rob Wilson, Nigel Evans, Kwasi Kwarteng and Peter Bottomley have all added their support. The campaigners expect to sign up even more once recess is over.