John Bercow

== John Bercow ==

Introduction

John Bercow, born 19 January 1963, is a British veteran politician who was the Speaker of the House of Commons for more than a decade, from June 2009 to November 2019. He also worked as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham from 1997 until 2019, when he resigned as Speaker and did refuse to re-elect for MP and left the Parliament. John Bercow was mainly a member of the Conservative Party until his resignation in 2019, then he joined Labour Party in 2021. He is also the appointed chancellor of the University of Essex and the University of Bedfordshire.

Early Political Career

In 1968, Bercow was selected as Conservative chancellor of Lambeth and in 1995, he was appointed as a special advisor to Jonathan Aitken, who was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury at the time. After Aitken’s resignation, Bercow became a special advisor to the Secretary of State for National Heritage, Virginia Bottomley. Bercow was elected as Member of Parliament for Buckingham on May 1997 and was continuously re-elected for more than two decades until his resignation in 2019. After merely 2 years, in June 1999, Bercow became a frontbench spokesman for Education and Employment and became a frontbench spokesman for in July 2000. In 2001 Conservative leader Lain Duncan Smith promoted Bercow to Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury however after his party opposition to free vote for Labour government Adoption and Children Act, Bercow resigned and moved to the backbench. A year later, in November 2003, Michael Howard appointed Bercow as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, nevertheless he was soon dismissed due to his contradiction with Howard over taxes, immigration, and Iraq and was sent to backbench where he remained until his election as the Speaker of House of Commons. During his career as a Member of Parliament, Bercow received the Channel Four/Hansard Society Political Award for Opposition MP of the Year in 2005 and became a patron of the Tory Reform Group in 2006. His work to support equality for gay, lesbian, and bisexual people led him to receive the Stonewall award for Politician of the Year in 2010.

Speaker of the house

Although Bercow had campaigned discreetly to become Speaker for a long time, He officially announced his intention of participating in the Speaker of the House of Commons 2009 election after Michael Martin’s resignation following the UK parliamentary expenses scandal. Bercow was unsatisfied with the system “The system had been excessively secretive, overly generous, loosely administered and patently indefensible” and sought to alter it through Parliament “We devised it and we had now to abolish it and provide for an independent body to devise an alternative, which should be characterized by equity, transparency, and accountability.” After three rounds of voting, Bercow became the first Jewish elected as the Speaker. Bercow was re-elected as the Speaker of the House of Commons in 2010, 2015, and 2017 elections and served until his resignation in 2019.

During Bercow’s service as Speaker, The House of Commons faced crucial challenges, mainly the 2016 referendum and Brexit with which Bercow seriously opposed Brexit and has publicly addressed it as “the biggest foreign policy blunder of the post-war period” and “the most chronic threat to the British national interest” but tried to maintain a neutral role as Speaker “I think the record shows I've always been keen to give a voice to the minority or the dissident voices in the House of Commons rather than in any sense to side with the majority.”

Retirement

On 9 September 2019, Bercow stated he intends to stand down on October 31st or the next election. He was appointed as Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead since members of the House of Commons can’t resign. These procedures facilitate legal permission for members to resign.

References

1. Unspeakable: The Autobiography by John Bercow
2. John Bercow: Call To Order by Sebastian Whale