It’s only been four days since John Bercow announced that he will retire as Speaker of the House of Commons, yet it seems that the bellicose MP is showing no sign that he’ll spend the rest of his tenure keeping quiet, or defending the impartiality of his role.
Last night, the Speaker had a break from his usual surroundings in the Commons’ Chamber to give the sixth annual Bingham Lecture to an audience of lawyers at Middle Temple in London. There, he used his pulpit once again to have a dig at Boris Johnson, comparing the PM’s alleged attempt to avoid extending Article 50 to robbing a bank.
He told the audience that:
‘Not obeying the law must surely be a non starter. Period. Surely in 2019 in modern Britain, in a parliamentary democracy, we Parliamentarians, legislators cannot in all conscience be conducting a debate as to whether adherence to the law is or isn’t required…’
Before adding:
‘One should no more refuse to request an extension of Article 50 because of what one might regard as the noble end of departing from the EU as soon as possible, then one could possibly excuse robbing a bank on the basis that the cash stolen would be donated to a charitable cause immediately afterwards.
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