It was supposed to be a fond farewell. But House of Commons Speaker John Bercow was involved in a bust-up with long-term nemesis Tory MP Andrew Bridgen. Bridgen accused Bercow of being biased.
Addressing a standards report against Labour’s Keith Vaz, Bridgen told the Commons:
“It's clear to me and it will be clear to the public that to the fag-end of your tenure in that chair you are defending the indefensible, and your very close relationship with [Mr Vaz] - the House can come to its own conclusions, the Standards Committee has come to its own conclusions, and Mr Speaker, the public will come to theirs.”
After the Tory MP used his speech to accuse Bercow of being too lax over Vaz, the Speaker ordered Bridgen to sit down, admonishing him for “extreme folly as well as sheer nastiness”.
Bridgen sarcastically thanked Bercow for his “help and advice”, but was again stopped in his tracks. “Don’t mix it with the chair,” Bercow fumed, face fixed into what Boris Johnson had half-affectionately described the day before as his “Tony Montana scowl”, a reference to Al Pacino’s character in Scarface.
Bercow said he was sure the public would come to their own conclusions, adding: “He can try to smear me, he will get the square root of nowhere.”
The speaker said it wouldn’t have been appropriate for him to investigate anything to do with Vaz, saying he isn’t a “night-time Columbo”.
Bercow told MPs: "He can try to smear me, he will get the square root of nowhere".
#JohnBercow
#Farewell
#HouseOfCommons
0 Comments