Bercow refuses to confirm departure date amid calls for him to resign as Speaker
Written by News on 18/10/2018
John Bercow has refused to confirm whether he will quit as Speaker next summer.
MPs have called on him to stand down over a bullying report in parliament.
The independent investigation found a culture of “deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence” had allowed misconduct of staff to thrive.
Mr Bercow spoke at the LGBT website Pink News awards on Wednesday, calling on people to “treat everybody equally, fairly, decently and with respect”.
Asked by Sky News to confirm whether he would resign next summer, the speaker waved but remained silent.
An aide intervened, knocking the camera and said “no – go away, go away”.
Mr Bercow did get a staunch defence from Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary.
She told Sky News on Monday: “I think this is absolutely not the time to be changing Speaker.
“We don’t know, for example, with regard to Brexit, as to what is going to happen.”
Following a backlash, Sky News asked Ms Thornberry at the Pink News awards if she regretted her comments.
“Of course not,” she said.
“I think about 12 years ago I was looking for a Conservative MP to help me with a campaign I was doing to change the law with regards to lesbian mothers and the only Tory I could find was John Bercow.”
A spokesperson for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “It’s not Jeremy’s view, and it’s not the view of the Labour leadership.”
The Times reported in June that “friends” of Mr Bercow had been told he would step down as speaker in summer 2019.
Despite a previous promise to only serve nine years when he was first elected in 2009, they said the Speaker wanted to stay on to see through Brexit.
Maria Miller, chair of the Commons equalities committee, said Mr Bercow “absolutely” needed to resign following the scandal, calling for a “root and branch” change of management.
(c) Sky News 2018: Bercow refuses to confirm departure date amid calls for him to resign as Speaker
