Speaker John Bercow 'urged to take part in Aghan job swap

The Prime Minister was left furious and directed a fierce glare at the Speaker
after he reprimanded him twice for over-long answers during question time
last week.

But yesterday he appeared to take his revenge after an aide suggested that Mr
Bercow would be taking part in a job exchange with the speaker of the Afghan
parliament.

Mr Cameron had discussed the Parliamentary Support Programme with Afghan
officials, during a tour of the country, which would see British and Afghan
MPs, peers and senators trade jobs.

Afterwards, asked if Mr Bercow had been approached to participate in the
exchange, a Downing Street spokesman indicated that the Speaker would take
part.

The spokesman said: "I am sure he is fully supportive of our efforts."

 

 

However, this came as something of a surprise to Mr Bercow who last night
furiously denied he had received an invitation and was adamant he would not
travel to the country.

His office issued a defiant rejection of the claims, saying: "The Speaker has
not had an invite to go to Afghanistan. He has no current plans to go to
Afghanistan."

Sally Bercow, his wife a Labour activist and vocal critic of the Coalition,
tweeted: “No I am not going to Afghanistan. And nor, to my knowledge, is Mr
B.”

Mr Cameron was furious last week when Mr Bercow cut him off as the Prime
Minister was giving an answer in PMQs, further fuelling Tory complaints that
Mr Bercow regularly favours Labour.

Today, in an article for the Daily Telegraph, a Tory MP who has been at war
with Mr Bercow regularly in the Commons chamber issues an all-out attack on
the Speaker’s competence, objectivity and manners.

Rob Wilson, the Conservative MP for Reading East, calls Mr Bercow a figure who
is “partisan, divisive figure, and…far too full of his own importance.”

The backbench MP adds: “Much of the criticism of Speaker Bercow has focused on
his behaviour outside the Chamber – for example, the inflation-busting pay
rise for his department, or his monumentally indiscreet Labour-supporting
wife, Sally.

“Yet of far greater concern is his behaviour in the Commons itself: his
combustible displays of temper and, more importantly, his naked
demonstrations of bias against the Tory party are all too often the talk of
the Tea Room and beyond.”