26 Mar 2015

Speaker coup defeated

Much has been written about the restlessness of Tory MPs, worries about what they might do the other side of the election if David Cameron fails to deliver a majority and/or tries to form another coalition.

Today the leadership tried to give the backbenchers a sweetener: the head of John Bercow.

It’s hard to convey the loathing many Tory MPs have for the Speaker.

Britain's John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, speaks to Eero Heinaluoma, Speaker of the Parliament of Finland, during a meeting in the Finnish parliament in Helsinki

They see him as a traitor to the Tory cause, a one-time hard rightist who travelled to the Tory Left and then, they argue, has become a patsy for the Labour MPs who, in great numbers, voted him into office.

The plan seems to have its origins right at the top of the government. In a “bring me the head of Alfredo Bercow” type moment the PM himself and the Chancellor are thought to have tasked the Chief Whip and the Leader of the Commons with devising a way to achieve John Bercow’s political demise.

Michael Gove has been heard to do a passable impersonation of the Speaker and has compared his delivery with that of the late Leonard Sachs, presenter of the Good Old Days.

The Speaker recently reprimanded Michael Gove to take the smirk off his face, sounding like a teacher with an errant pupil. But the real bile lurks with the two at the top of the party and that, I hear, is where the order to destroy came from.

The wheeze was to change parliamentary rules so that when MPs return after the election there would be a secret ballot of all MPs to decide who should be Speaker.

That, it was thought, would see John Bercow toppled from his job. The most likely successor would be the man cheered very loudly and pointedly into the chair last week just before the Budget, the Speaker’s Deputy, Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle.

The rules change vote was slipped without notice into the timetable for today, the last full sitting day of Parliament.

ost Labour MPs, it was expected, would have gone home. Tories were told to hang around for a morning briefing from Lynton Crosby and Chief Whip Michael Gove on the election.

When the Speaker and the Labour front bench got wind of what was going on delaying tactics were put in play. Urgent Questions summoning ministers to the house were laid. The Speaker, no doubt impartially, decided to allow all three of them – giving time for Labour reinforcements to be brought back to the Commons.

By the end of the whole process there was defeat for the government ploy (never a great morale booster) and much rhetorical blood spilled, not least this highly charged contribution from one of John Bercow’s most loyal Tory MPs, Charles Walker.

Labour MPs laid into the shabbiness of the effort, the clandestine nature of the ambush and the tarnishing of Hague’s own parliamentary career on his last full day in the House (he is standing down). Some Tories laid into their own leadership too.

After what was widely seen as a bad day yesterday at PMQs, Labour MPs today has something to cheer: they clapped and roared at getting one over on the Tories.

After a good day yesterday, Tories had concocted a set-back. An attempt to create a feel-good factor among Tory MPs served to remind them of the limits of their powers, and achieved the opposite.

The Speaker nearly lost it as the vote was announced.

He struggles to control his bottom lip, his eyes are teary and he glowers repeatedly at the government front bench. The looks seems to say: I won’t forget this.

He had survived a political assassination attempt at the fag end of parliament and looked like a man who’d been running for his life down back allies and over walls.

Once, a while ago, Speaker Bercow celebratedly raised himself to his full, but not great, height to tell off MPs, saying “I’m not happy.”

Quick as a flash, one Tory MP quipped back: “So which one are you?” Well, he started the day Grumpy but he’s not Dopey.

And he’s still there.

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