Tory MPs dislike him, but John Bercow will stay on as Commons Speaker, writes MARK HENNESSY
UNDER HOUSE of Commons rules, an MP destined to become speaker has to be dragged to the Speaker’s bench in remembrance of the days when occupying the post could provoke a monarch’s ire.
After 10 months in the post in the last parliament, John Bercow, however, was clearly keen for more and showed no such reluctance, putting up only the most token resistance as he was ushered to the Speaker’s Bench yesterday afternoon.
Just a few MPs, particularly Conservative Nadine Dorries, were unhappy and tried to push the matter to a vote when MPs met in the chamber for the first time since the election on May 6th.
She was joined by only a few voices. The front benches of both Labour and the Conservatives had decided that Bercow was to be elected, though he is not much liked.
The Conservatives did not want to begin their reign with unpleasantness.
Having heeded instructions to shout “aye” for Bercow, the 232 newly elected MPs kept up a deafening chatter as they gathered in the chamber, along with 427 more experienced hands, some of them mightily relieved to be back.
Everything about the occasion had the air of the first day at school. The new boys and girls were excited, while the less-than-confident, such as the Democratic Unionists, arrived together, in numbers.
Searching around for Dumbledore, witches and brooms, historian and Labour MP for Stoke Tristram Hunt mused that the Gothic-inspired chamber could be used as the set for Hogwarts in Harry Potter.
The House of Commons always harks back to the days of earlier speakers, George Thomas, or Betty Boothroyd, who became a national figure once the television cameras were allowed inside the Commons chamber.
Proposing Bercow, former Conservative foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind remembered the Welshman Thomas’s success in quietening a bitter row between a Scottish and English MP over the former’s impenetrable accent.
“There are many accents in this House. I sometimes wish I had one myself,” said Thomas, whose soft valley tones became known throughout the UK once the BBC started broadcasting from the Commons on radio from the late 1970s.
Saying that he had not voted for Bercow when then speaker Michael Martin was forced to resign in disgrace last year over the MPs’ expenses scandal, Rifkind said the Buckingham MP had been “absolutely fair” to all since his elevation.
Sitting overhead in the public gallery, Sally Bercow, who ran
for Labour in the local elections
in London and was defeated, looked nervous.
Earlier, she had tweeted: “Quickly downs cup of tea and applies lippie,” before heading for the chamber.
Everything has changed following May 6th.
Gordon Brown is not to be seen. Nick Clegg sits on the right-hand side of the chamber next to David Cameron.
The new prime minister, slightly nervous, looked around as he stood to address MPs.
“This will very much be a new parliament,” he said, before adding with just a chuckle, “It really does look and feel different. Indeed, many of us are sitting next to people that we’ve never sat next to before.”