John Bercow, the Speaker, has been accused of hypocrisy over a series of speeches he made defending free speech before he vetoed Donald Trump’s visit to Parliament.
Mr Bercow has been accused of
damaging the Special Relationship after he said he would stop the US President from speaking in Westminster Hall because of his “racism and sexism”.
It emerged on Wednesday that a plot is underway to oust Mr Bercow by holding a vote of no confidence in him in the Commons.
Mr Bercow’s
refusal to allow President Trump to address MPs and Lords in Parliament,
which is based purely on his personal dislike of the President’s views, is at odds with his previous pronouncements on the importance of free speech.
When he introduced the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to Parliament in 2015, he said that “democracy has to demonstrate that it can respect free speech”. A week later, in an article about mental health, he said: “A belief in free speech is part of our DNA.”
In October 2015, introducing President Xi Jinping to Parliament, he said “we can usefully reflect on the wise Chinese words that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”.
And after the murder of the MP Jo Cox last year, he said: “We just have to underline our determination as politicians across the spectrum that free speech and the right of people to go about their business and the pursuit of principle will continue.”
Ironically, Mr Bercow was once even more right-wing than President Trump. As a student at Essex University, he stood for election to the executive committee of the right-wing Monday Club of the Conservative Party on a platform of repatriating immigrants.
His manifesto stated: “The strengthening of our national identity demands a programme of assisted repatriation”, while “immigration” was listed first among his political interests.
He also toured universities with the former Conservative MP John Carlisle, who described Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, and shouted down hecklers who tried to stop the MP speaking.
Mr Carlisle said: “He was doing it because he believed in the cause, which was hearing the other side of the argument.”
Critics suggested that Mr Bercow’s views on free speech
only extend to those with whom he agrees.
The Conservative MP James Duddridge - who tried to introduce the subject of a vote of no confidence in Mr Bercow during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday - accused the Speaker of “hypocritical behaviour”.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “His views are not coherent. The main theme is him trying to promote himself, his agenda and what he thinks will play well in the press.”
Mr Duddridge, a former Foreign Office minister, had prepared a question for the Prime Minister which said: "There is a good tradition of the Government not interfering in House matters.
"Will my right honourable friend therefore give me the assurance that the Government will not interfere and will give ministers a free vote in any vote of no confidence in the Speaker?"
Mr Bercow did not, in the event, call Mr Duddridge to speak, but it is unlikely to be the end of the matter.
Mr Duddridge said: “What I was trying to do was just the tip of the iceberg. I think Speaker Bercow will start to consider his position after this. This is only going one way, and it’s not going to end with him leaving in 2018 as he has planned.
“He has poured flammable material on the fire and it only takes someone to wander past and throw a
on it for the whole thing to ignite.”
