MPs must decide whether John Bercow, the Speaker of the Commons, is impartial enough to stay in his post after he publicly stated that he voted for the UK to remain in the EU, a cabinet minister has said.



The leader of the Commons, David Lidington, warned there would be a “strong” reaction to Bercow’s remarks and stressed that the Speaker needed to retain the confidence of all MPs.

Bercow was plunged into fresh controversy after a video emerged of him talking to students at Reading University on 3 February in which he said: “Personally, I voted to remain. I thought it was better to stay in the European Union than not.”

In the video, obtained by the Sunday Telegraph, Bercow said that immigration had been good for Britain.

He also referred to “untruths” during the Brexit campaign, when “promises were made that could not be kept”, and said he hoped parliament would maintain changes to working hours and health and safety protections after Brexit.

Bercow was already facing a vote of no confidence after describing the US president, Donald Trump, as “racist and sexist”, effectively banning him from addressing parliament during his state visit. Some Conservative MPs say his position as Speaker is no longer tenable.

Lidington told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “There will be strong reaction among some MPs to what he said at Reading, particularly after what he said about the state visit earlier in the week. Ultimately, the Speaker has to command the confidence of the House of Commons as a whole.

“John has his very strong supporters as well as his strong critics in the House of Commons, but we shall have to see how members as a whole respond.

“It is really important for the very independence of the Speaker’s office that the Speaker, whether they start as a Conservative MP, a Labour MP, or whatever, is independent of government. Speakers, if anything, should be towards the people who are not in government, as actually John Bercow probably has done in the way that he has used urgent questions that we have found inconvenient.”

The parliamentary website states: “The Speaker is the chief officer and highest authority of the House of Commons and must remain politically impartial at all times. On election, the new Speaker must resign from their political party and remain separate from political issues even in retirement.”

Bercow’s spokeswoman said that how the Speaker cast his ballot in the European Union referendum had no impact on his ability to deal fairly with all MPs.

“Mr Bercow voted in the EU referendum, along with millions of others. The record shows that he has rigorously facilitated the raising of concerns of those on both sides of this argument, as he does on every other issue,” she said. “The Speaker’s impartiality is required on matters of debate before the House, and he has been scrupulous in ensuring that both sides of the argument are always heard.”

The spokeswoman added that Bercow’s record showed he was neutral in the chamber “irrespective of how he voted in a referendum, general [election] – one would hope for himself – local [election], or Strictly Come Dancing”.

James Duddridge is among the Tory MPs saying it was now impossible for Bercow to be impartial during Brexit debates in the Commons.

John Whittingdale, a Conservative MP who was culture secretary when he campaigned for Britain to leave the EU, said “the scoresheet [against Bercow] is mounting up”.

“I was very unhappy about his comments concerning Donald Trump. I thought that they were damaging and actually it was a bit of grandstanding by John,” he told ITV’s Peston on Sunday.

“I think that the revelation that [Bercow] voted remain, actually, I was a bit surprised, because we had been told privately that we thought he was sympathetic to our cause, but it’s after the referendum, [and] I don’t think that I’ve seen any evidence that the way he has voted has influenced the way he has behaved in the chamber.

“But you know, the scoresheet is mounting up, and there is a lot of criticism on a wide variety of things.”

