Hot topics close

John Bercow Suspended By Labour After Investigation Found Him To Be A “Serial Bully”

John Bercow Suspended By Labour After Investigation Found Him To Be A Serial Bully
The former Commons speaker John Bercow has been suspended from the Labour Party after he found to be a “serial bully”.
John Bercow Suspended By Labour After Investigation Found Him To Be A “Serial Bully”

John Bercow has been suspended pending investigation by Labour after a report found him to be a "serial bully" (Alamy)

Alain Tolhurst

1 min read44 min

The former Commons speaker John Bercow has been suspended from the Labour Party after he found to be a “serial bully”.

An investigation by Parliament's Independent Expert Panel published on Tuesday upheld 21 separate allegations against the ex-MP.

Bercow is now understood to have been administratively suspended pending an investigation by Labour, having joined the party last year.

Originally elected as a Conservative MP, he became speaker in 2009, serving in the role for a decade before leaving Parliament in 2019.

But since then he has faced numerous allegations by three former House staff relating to incidents which took place between 2009 and 2014.

One complainant claimed the former Speaker "shouted and mimicked" his employees, while another said the MP often displayed "threatening conduct" and "undermining behaviour".

A third former staff member claimed that the Speaker had subjected them to a "sustained course of conduct.. that involved repeated unfounded criticism of the complainant" which included "derogatory inferences about [his] upbringing and background".

Bercow has strongly dismissed the findings of the report, claiming that "to describe what I have experienced as a kangaroo court is grossly insulting to kangaroos".

After the report from the IEP was published this morning the former Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said Keir Starmer must expel Bercow from the Labour Party.

PoliticsHome Newsletters

PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe

Similar news
News Archive
  • Babin Yar
    Babin Yar
    Last survivor of massacre reveals the horror of Babyn Yar
    27 Jan 2022
    1
  • David Graeber
    David Graeber
    The anarchist: How David Graeber became the left's most influential thinker
    3 Sep 2020
    2
  • London Charing Cross
    London Charing Cross
    Chaos at Charing Cross as trains cancelled over trespasser on tracks
    29 Feb 2024
    1
  • NK Olimpija Ljubljana
    NK Olimpija Ljubljana
    Soccer Thursday: Miller picks UEFA Europa League second legs - Rigas FS v Olimpija Ljubljana, Dinamo Minsk v ...
    18 Jul 2019
    2
  • Sporting CP
    Sporting CP
    Sporting CP earn a 2-2 draw against Porto in a thriller at Estádio do Dragão
    29 Apr 2024
    24
  • Ange Capuozzo
    Ange Capuozzo
    'He doesn't even look like a rugby player': Italian press heralds new hero Capuozzo
    20 Mar 2022
    2