John bercow

John Bercow’s war with the Conservatives looks set to return after a lively exchange of words this lunchtime. The incident occurred after Javid responded to an urgent question from Labour on the steel industry regarding the 1,200 job losses Tata Steel. Bercow decided that Javid had taken too long to answer the question and told him it should have been ‘blindingly obvious’ to make a government statement on the matter instead. Rather than put the Business Secretary down gently, the Speaker let his feelings be known by calling Javid ‘discourteous and incompetent’ before warning him that ‘it must not happen again’. ‘What he should not do is fail to communicate with me

John Bercow has long made clear that he would like MPs to behave a little better at Prime Minister’s Questions, which he believes is so rowdy that it upsets voters. Well, he seems to have got what he wants, or at least for the first week of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party. Last night, at a lecture to the think tank Policy Exchange, he was asked about the session, and whether he thought it would improve permanently. The Speaker said he didn’t believe ‘that a huge amount of additional work is required in terms of creative construction of the session’, though he added that the session could be

With MPs being awarded a 10 per cent pay rise this summer, politicians have been left having to defend their annual salary of £74,00o from sceptics who point out that the boost comes at a time when their constituents face tough cuts. Still, Mr S wonders whether that number is too small an estimate after one takes into account all the freebies they can receive. According to the latest register of interests, MPs have been managing to enjoy a summer of freebies in between their constituency work. After John Bercow boasted last year that he had watched 65 of Roger Federer’s matches, he looks on course to achieve a similar number for 2015. According to the

The SNP may finally be having an effect on Westminster’s rules and traditions. Ever since the 56 SNP MPs descended on Parliament they have been repeatedly told off by the Speaker of the Commons for breaking tradition by clapping in the Chamber: ‘The convention that we do not clap in this Chamber is very, very long established and widely respected, and it would be appreciated if Members showed some respect for that convention.’ Despite this, the SNP MPs have shown little regard for the rule, even going so far as to applaud Simon Burns after he told them it was against Westminster etiquette to clap. Now the tide may be

‘Put that on your leaflets,’ snarled Cameron at PMQs. Inwardly he was gloating. Labour voted against Tory welfare reforms last night so the PM was able to boast that Labour is fighting the new living wage. Some say Cameron is lurching to the left with his Five Year Plans and his state-controlled pay rises. The same applies to law and order. He’s getting a pinkish tinge. Philip Davies asked him to review the regulations governing early release for serious offenders. Cameron said he’d give it a go. It’s not good enough, he seemed to imply, having murderers murdering people shortly after gaining their freedom by promising to become pillars of

You might expect to see Lionel Richie pass outside your door, if you were in the Ivy last night, or in the VIP yurt of this month’s Glastonbury Festival. But hello, which peer was he looking for this afternoon? The global superstar and former Commodores front man was accompanied by Lord Levy, after the two hit it off last week at an anniversary dinner for Jewish Care. Lord Levy appeared to be giving him a tour almost up there on the ceiling: Richie was not up there all night long though, however, and was spotted heading off in the direction of the Speaker’s Office. Mr S understands that he did not meet

Of all the MPs’ wives, Karen Danczuk and Sally Bercow may have amassed the most column inches. So perhaps it’s not surprising that in the wake of Sally’s latest news, Danczuk has come to her defence. Writing in this week’s issue of the women’s magazine Closer, Danczuk, who says she has been described as ‘the new Sally Bercow’, argues that onlookers should refrain from criticising Bercow over her alleged affair with her husband’s cousin. She says that unless you yourself have been a politician’s wife you cannot understand what it is like: ‘Life as a politician’s wife is a pressure cooker. And you can never switch off – you have a bath

John Bercow has just been re-elected unopposed as Speaker of the House of Commons. Those who had been hoping to get rid of Bercow decided not to pursue this to a vote this week, and so he is back in the chair. In his speech, he cracked a joke at the expense of Labour, saying that he would like the words on his own tombstone to be ‘he was the backbenchers’ champion’. He then sat through a welcome speech from David Cameron, wearing a slightly wry smile. That wry smile was Bercow recalling the last hours of the last Parliament, in which the Tories tried to stitch him up by

There was a time when both MPs and viewers of Prime Minister’s Question Time would welcome an interjection from the Commons Speaker. Indeed, there was a time when the Speaker commanded the respect not just of the entire House but the whole nation. But, after almost six years of John Bercow in the chair, that feels like the long and distant past. In the good old days, when Betty Boothroyd was Speaker, MPs on all sides would fall silent at the first inkling that she was about to rise to her feet. First she would daintily withdraw her black-stockinged feet from the green leather stool in front of her. Then she would

If ever you needed evidence that politics at the moment is a bit, well, weird, John Bercow has just apologised in the House of Commons for comparing Esther McVey to a washing machine. At Work and Pensions Questions in the Commons on Monday, the Speaker cut the minister off during an answer by saying ‘I am reminded of the feeling when one thinks the washing machine will stop—but it does not!’ Today, in response to a point of order from Tory Heather Wheeler, Bercow said: ‘I hope I ordinarily treat members with great courtesy, it was an off-the-cuff remark, it may have been a foolish one, and I apologise for

Thank goodness there aren’t that many Prime Minister’s Questions left before the election. As James said, there was a rather end-of-term feeling to today’s session: indeed, it felt a bit like an end-of-term lunch where all the pupils are hopelessly overexcited and the teacher has given up. It wasn’t just that David Cameron decided he should troll John Bercow by reeling off a lengthy list of Tory commitments that the party has stuck to, giggling at the Speaker as he said ‘plenty of time!’ to mock Bercow’s habit of pompously telling MPs that the session will take as long as it needs to. It was also the way MPs were

Speculation has been rife that John Bercow’s decision to let cameras into the commons for a BBC documentary will backfire on him. Reports have claimed that the Speaker of the Commons is to be depicted in a negative light in the series, Inside the Commons. Given this, Bercow has so far got off remarkably lightly in the first two episodes. However, Mr S hears that this should all change by next week, with the documentary maker Michael Cockerell confirming that Bercow’s ‘rift’ with Sir Robert Rogers will be explored in depth. ‘You will have to watch the series, but you wouldn’t expect me as a journalist not to deal with a fascinating story that happened on our watch. We

John Bercow got more than he bargained for last night when he presented an award at Paddy Power’s Political Book Awards. Appearing on stage alongside Rory Bremner to giveaway the gong for ‘Polemic of the Year,’ the Speaker of the House of Commons was grilled by the impressionist on the rising cost of the Westminster gym upgrade. Bremner said, ‘Can I ask you, have you come from the new gym?’ ‘I have, I was there earlier, I didn’t see you there,’ Bercow replied, nervously. The 53-year-old Scotsman then asked Bercow if it was really true that a spinning room at the costly gym had been named in his honour. ‘It’s not called the spinning room, you

John Bercow has lost his biggest attempt at a power grab after MPs recommended that the appointment process for the Commons clerk be terminated. The governance committee set up after the row over the Speaker’s desire to appoint Carol Mills became too big to handle has called for a new director general job to be created and that and the Clerk job should be readvertised. Now Mills can notionally re-apply for the job but would struggle to meet the new criteria set out by the committee. It says the Clerk is ‘adviser to the House of Commons on the procedure and practice of Parliament, including parliamentary privilege’. The row about