Parliamentary staff have been asked to help provide research for MPs defending the Speaker, John Bercow, against allegations of bullying, prompting claims of a potential conflict of interest.
Staff from the House of Commons’ media office worked with the Speaker’s office last week to provide briefings on the claims of bullying against the Speaker, the Guardian has established.
These briefings were produced so they could be passed on to MPs who are friends of Bercow as he battles calls for a formal inquiry into the claims. The disclosure has prompted concerns about conflicts of interest and a possible misuse of public funds.
There has been growing speculation that Bercow will leave the post in the next year.
Dave Penman, the head of the FDA, the senior civil servants union, said: “The interests of the Speaker must be separated from the interests of the House of Commons, they are not indivisible. It is extraordinary that staff resources, funded by the taxpayer, could have been used to brief friends of the Speaker to appear in the media defending his personal conduct.”
Bercow faces calls for an independent inquiry after Angus Sinclair, the Speaker’s former private secretary, accused him of physically intimidating, demeaning and mimicking him before he took “compulsory early retirement” in 2010.
Sinclair was paid almost £90,000 on condition that he signed confidentiality clauses that barred him from speaking out. He has since broken the terms of the agreement.
David Leakey, who stepped down last year as Black Rod, a ceremonial post in parliament, told Newsnight he had experienced the outbursts of temper described by other former members of Bercow’s staff.
Bercow has denied all allegations of bullying.
It is understood that the Speaker’s office asked the House of Commons media office to help put together files of research for MPs defending Bercow.
A number of MPs have intervened to defend the Speaker, including the Conservative Dr Julian Lewis and the Labour former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie, who both raised points of order supporting Bercow.
Leslie appeared on Newsnight to discuss the claims. Asked whether he was briefed by the Speaker’s office, Leslie said he had a “passing conversation” with the Speaker’s office and was given a summary of news coverage and the Speaker’s public statements. He had not spoken directly to House of Commons staff.
Bercow, who has been Speaker since 2009, said before he took the post he would resign after no longer than nine years – leaving 22 June of this year as his deadline. The Sunday Times reported he would step down within the next year. Sir Peter Bottomley, the Tory MP who “dragged” Bercow to the Speaker’s chair nine years ago in the traditional ritual, told the Daily Telegraph he expected him to leave this year.
Penman, the FDA chief, said the Commons media team should not be used as “personal PR advisers” to the Speaker. “How can staff have any confidence that their complaints will be treated fairly if the Speaker is able to deploy House resources, apparently without challenge, to help ‘spin’ his side of any alleged behaviour?
“What message does this send to staff who may be considering raising a complaint, knowing that potentially their own colleagues will be used to brief against them?
“This once again raises the issue of a conflict of interest in the role of the Speaker and the broader House Commission, which he chairs and which acts as the employer of House staff,” he said.
A House of Commons spokesman said: “As is common practice, the House of Commons media team provides background material to MPs and officials on issues affecting the House”.
A spokesman for the Speaker’s office said: “The speaker has put his position on the record. He has not asked the Commons media team or anyone else to do anything more than report that position.”
