JOHN Bercow has backed Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle over a dispute with the SNP’s John Nicholson over leaked private correspondence between the two.
Sir Lindsay blasted Mr Nicholson in the Commons for leaking the material and criticised his subsequent “miserable half-apology”.
Former speaker Mr Bercow told GB News: “Instinctively my sympathies are with Mr Speaker. I think it is a very important and long established principle that if people wish to communicate with the Speaker, especially concerning matters of privilege, they do so in writing, and they do so on the basis that that exchange is confidential.
“To breach that without authority, that is to say without seeking the Speaker’s permission, is wrong. And it is even more heinous a sin to leak only a part of the exchanges, presumably in order to prosecute the argument that John Nicholson wanted to advance.
“So, I remember Mr. Nicholson’s, he’s a cheeky Chappie, but in this particular instance his cheek is excessive.”
In an interview with Phillip Davies and Esther McVey on GB News, he said: “I’m not in favour as you probably know of preserving all conventions.
“For example, I think that the convention that stipulates that a member of the commons cannot criticise a member of the other house can be an excessive constraint.
“Some of these are very sort of old fashioned, time-honoured, gentlemanly or lady-like understandings which are not necessarily fit for purpose.
“I’m all in favour of reviewing conventions, and some of them need to be changed. But I think the convention about confidential dealings with the speaker is an important one.
“And I think Lindsay Hoyle had every right to be extremely [aggrieved].”
Asked about the convention of not criticising members of the Lords and the controversy surrounding Baroness Mone over Covid PPE contracts, he told GB News: “I think there is some merit in changing that.
“I think a lot of members are sufficiently versatile and dexterous on their feet, that they’re perfectly capable of finding a way of giving voice to their unhappiness without attacking her directly.
“In some cases where the allegations are very, very personal to and focused on her, it might make it all but impossible to do so. So I think there’s a good case for saying we don’t have to apply that convention in a totally rigorous way.
“But I think there’s a real difference between the Mone situation and the behaviour of John Nicholson towards the Speaker which was frankly shameful.”
