Heckler’s verdict: Bercow ‘wounded’

‘It was an utter humiliation’, says Bercow’s biographer, after the Speaker was openly mocked by MPs as he retreated in the row over who will be the new Commons clerk.

But Bobby Friedman does not think that his muse is 'toast' yet:

'Bercow doesn't really do humble: inside he'll have been apoplectic. Until now, though, he's seemed untouchable – nothing the Conservatives did knocked him off his stride. Now they've done that once, the aura of invulnerability has gone' With parliamentary hacks and MPs left open mouthed at the contempt in which the Speaker is now clearly held, how long can he last without his ‘aura’? As he made his statement the Tory benches were stuffed with sharks looking like they had smelt blood. 'Wounded' is how heckler-in-chief Michael Fabricant described Bercow after his afternoon's work, when asked by Mr S.