The Leader of the House asks Bercow to confirm what advice he received from the Commons staff about his controversial ruling on the Grieve Amendment.
The Chamber was filled for a long time with clouds of canting, self-righteous, ludicrously overblown protest.
John Bercow made no comment on Dame Laura Cox’s suggestion that he and other senior officers of the Commons should be replaced.
It would be shameful if the independent inquiry into bullying in the House of Commons was obscured by political infighting.
This form of words citing the Speaker is the gambit by which ministers and whips hope to avert a Grieve-led rebellion today.
“That adjective simply summed up how I felt about the way that that day’s business had been conducted.”
The traditional uniform helped to anonymise the office-holder beneath the office, and took humility to wear. Whoever succeeds him should restore it.
A lesson of the claims made against the Speaker is that there is no adequate means of holding him to account when Commons’ conventions break down.
In response, Lord Hain dismisses the alleged incidents as “an office row”, and suggests the scandal is motivated by political disagreement.
The Speaker informs the House of Commons that it has become law.
“I hope… they will accept that, as an unelected chamber, they should agree that the will of the British electorate as a whole, and the view of the House of Commons overwhelmingly, should go.”
The Speaker also received support from Sir Edward Leigh and Paul Flynn.
Despite early optimism about allies among the Opposition, no Labour MPs voted Aye.
I like John Bercow – indeed, I’ll vote for him. But the Speaker of the House shouldn’t represent a constituency – doing so disenfranchises thousands of people.