Today, the Speaker John Bercow dealt a harsh blow to the government’s Brexit strategy after announcing that he would block a third vote on Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, unless it changed in a substantial way.
Not content though with just one attack on the government, the Speaker also found time to launch a dig at his favourite rival in the House of Commons: Andrea Leadsom.
After the Commons leader entered the Chamber to sit on the front bench, and was checking her phone — presumably waiting on updates from Number 10 — Bercow appeared to be peeved that he didn’t have her full attention, and launched a broadside at her and the deputy chief whip, Christopher Pincher:
‘I note that as the right honourable gentleman asks his question and I respond, the leader of the house [Leadsom] is playing with her electronic device and so is the deputy chief whip [Pincher]. I didn’t include him in the category of very senior people in the house, but that’s a debatable proposition.
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