ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

A conservative plot to unseat Speaker John Bercow exploded into bitter infighting today amid accusations of “shabby” tricks and “back- stabbing”.

In an extraordinary drama in the last hours of parliamentary debate before the general election, the Speaker and his allies unleashed a fierce counter-attack.

Mr Bercow used his powers to grant three urgent questions to the Opposition, which had the effect of postponing a debate on his future for up to several hours, enabling his supporters to rush back to Westminster to vote.

In astonishing scenes, Cabinet ministers were recalled from official visits and senior Tories scheduled a meeting for backbenchers to be briefed by election campaign chief Lynton Crosby in a bid to keep their MPs at Westminster while Labour MPs were going home.

There were claims that the Conservatives were in league with the Democratic Unionist Party with a secret deal to put veteran Northern Ireland MP Nigel Dodds in the Speaker’s chair.

Commons leader William Hague took Westminster by surprise last night by tabling a vote to hold a secret ballot after the general election on whether or not to keep Mr Bercow as Speaker.

It was seen partly as revenge for a series of spats between ministers and the Speaker. However, Labour MPs were today convinced that it owed more to plotting for a Tory-DUP coalition.

Tory MP Julian Lewis, one of Mr Bercow’s closest allies, accused Mr Hague of a “squalid manoeuvre” and of behaving in an “underhand and shabby way”. Mr Lewis said: “It is desperately sad.”

In December, the Standard revealed that senior Tories were plotting to unseat Mr Bercow in revenge for several rulings they felt unjust.