John Bercow’s fall from grace was long overdue
The anti-Brexit speaker tried to thwart democracy – a far worse crime than ‘bullying’.
How the mighty have fallen. John Bercow, former speaker of the House of Commons, has been accused of being a ‘serial bully’. Findings from a 22-month independent parliamentary investigation into incidents dating back over 12 years were released yesterday. And they are damning.
According to the report, Bercow frequently lost his temper and was once so enraged he smashed a mobile phone on a desk directly in front of a colleague. He repeatedly swore and regularly belittled, humiliated and even mimicked members of staff. In fact, so ingrained was this behaviour that Bercow reportedly mimicked one of the beleaguered colleagues under discussion during his interviews with the investigators. All in all, Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel upheld 21 allegations of bullying against the former speaker, made by three former members of staff. It also found him to be ‘widely unreliable and repeatedly dishonest’ in giving evidence. Bercow vehemently denies all the allegations against him and insists the investigation was a ‘kangaroo court’.