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John Bercow prepares to make his Labour debut

Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

Labour conference begins this Saturday and already expectations are running high. Ahead of his first in-person appearance as leader, Keir Starmer has dropped the season’s hottest release – an 11,500 word personal essay on his vision for Britain. There’s talk of rule changes, factional disputes and all kinds of rows over obscure procedure on the conference floor while ex-Unite general secretary Len McCluskey aims to spoil Keir’s party by having his own rival book launch on Saturday.

And now, as if things could not get much worse, John Bercow is set to make his Labour debut down in Brighton. The former Commons Speaker will be interviewed on Monday by Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland in an event being hosted by Small and Medium Enterprises 4 Labour. It comes three months after Bercow announced that he was joining the Starmer army, abandoning two centuries of parliamentary precedent on the grounds that the government had done so first with its refusal to give him a peerage. Bercow

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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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