Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

John Bercow’s authority has now collapsed

The title ‘Father of the House’ tends to give the bearer a chronic problem with wind. The present holder, Ken Clarke, stood up at PMQs and asked a question of Gibbonian magnitude and complexity. Among the gusts of prose was a useful point about spending. ‘It would be extremely unwise for the outgoing government to make reckless commitments,’ he said. He was ignored. Member after member tried to cadge money from Mrs May before she quits the Downing Street cash-pile.

The Conservative MP Marcus Jones wanted a handout for shops in Nuneaton, while Paul Scully made the case for SEN children. Tim Loughton, whose constituency abuts the sea, proposed a whole new arm of government, the Coastal Schools Challenge Fund, to help kids living near a beach to swot harder. Pleas were made for sex abuse victims, for patients with contaminated blood, for kids needing medicinal cannabis. Most pressing is the scandal of unsafe tower-block cladding that awaits replacement. Two years since Grenfell and there are 60,000 people living in dangerous high-rise buildings. Jeremy Corbyn did well to focus on this today.

The most eye-catching moment came when Speaker Bercow lost control of the house. The SNP’s Ian Blackford was lambasting Boris Johnson whom he identified as, ‘the front-runner in the leadership contest’. He recited some of Boris’s more inflammatory asides including the (plainly satirical) observation that ‘Scots should be banned from being prime minister.’

‘Not only is the member racist,’ commented Blackford, ‘but he is stoking division in communities.’

Calls of ‘withdraw!’ erupted from the Tory benches. Speaker Bercow climbed to his feet but he didn’t seem to know what to do next.

‘He should be extremely careful in the language he uses,’ he said. Rather a mild rebuke. Louder cries of ‘Withdraw! Withdraw!’ pealed out.

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