John Bercow may be gone but his legacy still lives on. The former Speaker of the House of Commons quit the role back in November 2019 but new costs from his tenure at the helm are still being uncovered more than two years on. Steerpike has done some digging and it seems the scandal-hit Speaker felt the need to call in the services of an expert PR adviser, despite him having access to both his own press secretary and the Commons media team.
A Freedom of Information request has found that Bercow spent between £65,000 to £70,000 on the services of former journalist Tim Hames between 2015 and 2019. Who he, you might ask? Three months after Bercow was elected to his Commons post in June 2009, Hames was controversially lined up to be the first special advisor and spokesman to the Speaker. Yet despite an annual reported salary in the region of £100,000, Hames left the post just 11 months later after a short but eventful stint in the role.
Yet it seems Bercow kept using Hames in an informal but paid capacity for years afterwards. In its response to Mr S, the House of Commons confirmed Hames’s salary but added:
We only hold payroll information for six years, after which time records are destroyed in accordance with our records retention schedule. Therefore, we do not hold information for the time before 2015.
This means, of course, the total figure could be even higher. For all that PR advice, you might have hoped Bercow would have a better reputation…
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