Handing John Bercow a peerage would be a ‘scandal’, says David Leakey
Former speaker John Bercow should be blocked from the Lords, or risk plunging Westminster into “a scandal that parliament would struggle to live down”, the former Black Rod has claimed.
David Leakey, who served as Black Rod for seven years, told the BBC that Bercow’s nomination for a peerage by the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was inappropriate because of his behaviour towards staff members.
Leakey has accused the divisive former speaker of bullying and other explosive behaviour.
Leakey has submitted a dossier on Bercow to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, having first raised his concerns about him in 2018.
“If John Bercow was given a peerage in the House of Lords it would be a scandal which parliament would struggle to live down,” he said this morning.
Bercow has insisted they did not work together as the Black Rod role mainly relates to the Lords. But Leakey said almost a third of his work was for the Commons.
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He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “[Bercow] would fly into a rage, the red mist would descend … jumping up and down and balling out. He called me an antisemite once after being rather rude and insulting about my background, education and military career.
“That’s the sort of intolerable behaviour which I called out. I think that John Bercow suggested this is rather opportunistic, but it’s not. I called him out two years ago and I did so because I was speaking up for people who were either unwilling to speak out for themselves or for one reason or another.”
Lord Lisvane, the former chief clark to the Commons, has also made a complaint of bullying, humiliation and use of inappropriate language to staff.
Bercow denies any wrongdoing and said Leakey is “turning up years later commenting on matters he couldn’t possibly know about because he had already left”.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott backed Bercow, saying it was “unlikely” that a former senior military officer such as Leakey could have been bullied.
“He had been a lieutenant general who served in Germany, Northern Ireland and Bosnia, but claims he was bullied (ie intimidated and coerced) by John Bercow. Unlikely,” she tweeted.
The tweet has since been deleted.