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Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on 17 October.
Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on 17 October. Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images
Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on 17 October. Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images

John Bercow must resign if Westminster is to reform – Labour MP

This article is more than 5 years old
Jess Phillips says Commons Speaker should quit after damning report on ‘bullying’ workplace culture

Labour MP Jess Phillips has called for the House of Commons Speaker John Bercow to stand down following a damning report into Westminster’s workplace culture.

Writing in the Observer, Phillips praises Bercow for being “a reformer and a progressive”, but concludes that he should now go.

Bercow is under growing pressure to vacate his position immediately amid claims of bullying parliamentary staff – claims he strongly denies.

The Guardian reports that he has told friends he will not resign before his intended departure date next summer, which will mark his 10th year in the post.

But Phillips, who sits on both the backbench business committee and the women and equalities committee, backs last week’s report by Dame Laura Cox calling for “some individuals … to think very carefully about whether they are the right people to press the reset button and to do what is required to deliver that change in the best interests of the House.

“Bercow reset and revived parliament in so many ways but I don’t think he can reset this,” she writes.

Last week the MP for Birmingham Yardley, who agreed that Bercow had been a “great speaker for MPs”, had suggested that those attacking him were doing it for “political gain”. However, in an acknowledgement that parliament could be further contaminated by the toxic row now enveloping the Speaker, Phillips writes: “The fish rots from the head, apparently”, adding, for clarification, “the fish is parliament and the head is the Speaker, John Bercow.”

But she does not appear optimistic that much will come of him standing down, unless MPs from all sides unite to tackle parliament’s culture of bullying.

“Power and patronage rules above all else in parliament, now more than ever,” she writes. “I have no hope that any substantial change is coming off the back of this report if MPs are the ones who steer what that change will be. It must be independent of our friendships, loyalties and fears.”

Her comments come at the same time as a former Commons clerk, Libby Bradshaw, claims that Bercow called her a “little girl” when he could not find an envelope he was looking for. Bradshaw said parliament was haemorrhaging talent because of the way staff were treated. She said calls for change, as set out in the Cox report, were in danger of being stymied.

Bradshaw wrote in HuffPost UK: “There is already talk that the report could get kicked into the long grass and the tribal warfare surrounding the Speaker, and Brexit, have meant that this issue that has affected so many lives and careers is in danger of being drowned by politics again.”

A spokeswoman for Bercow said: “The Speaker has absolutely no recollection of this alleged incident – and it’s not, in his experience, the sort of statement he would make.”

Meanwhile, the assistant general secretary of the FDA, which represents civil servants, said House of Commons staff would have “little other choice” than to go on strike unless tough action is taken to address the culture of bullying and sexual harassment. 

Amy Leversidge said workers had been “pushed to breaking point” and her union would “support members” if they decided to stage a walkout.

Failure by the House of Commons commission, which meets to discuss how to respond to the report on Wednesday, to back the “full and immediate” implementation of the recommendations would leave staff with “little other choice” than to strike, Leversidge said. 

She told The Sunday Times: “Industrial action is always a last resort and nobody would take the decision lightly, especially Commons staff, who are immensely loyal to parliament.” 

More on this story

More on this story

  • What is role of parliamentary watchdog ICGS set up in response to #MeToo?

  • Labour MP Liam Byrne to be suspended from Commons for bullying aide

  • Liz Truss must act now to clean up Tory record of misconduct in Westminster

  • John Bercow is rightly damned as a bully and liar. But he was not alone in the Commons

  • Why bullying is tolerated in the corridors of power

  • Priti Patel’s alleged bullying: what the case is about

  • John Bercow found to be ‘serial bully’ and liar by independent inquiry

  • Boris Johnson dismisses bullying and leak concerns as 'trivia'

  • Failure to investigate ministers could erode public trust, says ex-ethics adviser

  • Lord Maginnis faces 18-month suspension for homophobic bullying

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