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Speaker Bercow has been accused of misleading the House of Commons over his plan to appoint Carol Mills as Clerk of the House. In a letter to the Speaker, seen first by Coffee House, Conservative MP Michael Fabricant suggests that Bercow may have ‘inadvertently misled the House’ on whether the recruitment firm advising on the appointment of the Clerk was prevented from giving evidence about the suitability of Mills for the job. Today in the Commons, Bercow told Fabricant that he was ‘unfortunately, but fairly predictably’ wrong to say that recruitment consultants Saxton Bampfylde were prevented from telling the panel advising on the appointment that Mills was under two investigations by the Australian Senate. But in his letter, Fabricant writes:
‘Notwithstanding your personal comments about me in the Chamber, on the first question, whether Saxton Bampfylde was prevented by the Panel, following your advice and lead, from giving further evidence regarding the suitability or otherwise of Ms Mills, I have since been told by members of the Panel that this was indeed the case.
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