The former star speaker of the British House of Commons John Bercow, who distinguished himself during the interminable Brexit debates by his theatrical interventions, was called Tuesday a “stalker” and a “liar” by a group of experts in Parliament.
“Off” since 2019
The 59-year-old former “speaker” bowed out in 2019 after 10 years in office, a record since the Second World War. Following his departure, he was accused of having bullied his teams to the point of harassment. Bercow was a “serial stalker” and a “serial liar”, wrote a panel of independent parliamentarians investigating the charges on Tuesday, which relied on testimony from three former aides. “Like many bullies, he had his favorites and those who were his victims,” says the report, which confirms a previous parliamentary inquiry into the subject.
A “parody of justice” according to the accused
John Bercow called the report a “parody of justice and (of) shame for the House of Commons”, drawn up by a “junk court”. According to him, the parliamentary report is the result of a “protracted, amateurish and unfair process that would not have survived a five-minute scrutiny in court”. The former Conservative MP announced last year that he was leaving the Tories to join Labour, deeming his former party “xenophobic” and calling its leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “null”.