John Bercow loves taking guests around Speaker’s House overlooking the Thames. His favourite part is showing off the astonishing four-poster bed in the state rooms, made for the monarch to sleep in the night before the coronation. “I’m not sure it would be comfortable, as far as I can tell from feeling it,” he says, stroking it, and for a moment you can imagine him jumping up and down on it.

In other ways the Speaker of the House of Commons likes to think of himself as an arch moderniser, bringing in a crèche, championing backbenchers and calling out sexism. I’ve been to several debates at Speaker’s House about LGBTQ issues, disabilities and mental health. The First Commoner of the Land is intent on showing