John Bercow has just been re-elected unopposed as Speaker of the House of Commons. Those who had been hoping to get rid of Bercow decided not to pursue this to a vote this week, and so he is back in the chair. In his speech, he cracked a joke at the expense of Labour, saying that he would like the words on his own tombstone to be ‘he was the backbenchers’ champion’. He then sat through a welcome speech from David Cameron, wearing a slightly wry smile.
That wry smile was Bercow recalling the last hours of the last Parliament, in which the Tories tried to stitch him up by sneaking through a rule change that would elect the speaker by secret ballot. Parliament descended into uproar, with even those who thought the principle might be a good thing standing up to oppose the shabby way in which it had been brought to MPs. They saw it as a way of Number 10 trying to screw over Parliament. Parliament doesn’t like that sort of thing. It didn’t like it when Theresa May tried some funny business on the European Arrest Warrant. And they won’t like it if the Tory leadership tries to do something clever over the next few years that involves messing Parliament around. Many a cunning plan has been hatched in Number 10, but often cunning plans are best left to Baldrick, rather than brought onto the floor of the House of Commons.
The importance of taking Parliament seriously has grown all the more now the government’s majority is so small. There are a number of Tory MPs who see the poor treatment of the House as a cardinal sin, and who will not fall into line simply because they need to do so to pass a new law or rule in the Commons. Number 10 must treat Parliament with the delicacy it deserves, because it contains many fierce champions of the Commons, just as Bercow is a fierce champion of the backbenches.
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