A complaint over the behaviour of a fundraising team for John Bercow, the Commons Speaker who is fighting to retain his Buckingham seat, was last night filed to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
A member of the UK Independence Party, who lives within the MP’s constituency, has written to the commissioner expressing concern that The Friends of Speaker Bercow may be breaching parliamentary rules by appearing to operate in conjunction with the apolitical Office of the Speaker.
Strict rules govern how MPs electioneer and politicians are not allowed to use the machine of the taxpayer-funded civil service to help them with their campaigning, or exploit the services of Commons officials who are also paid by the state.
The so-called Friends of Speaker Bercow are a group of fundraisers who are trying to drum up £40,000 of donations to bankroll the MP’s constituency campaign at the election.
While Parliamentary protocol dictates that the Speaker’s seat is uncontested in an election campaign, Nigel Farage, the former leader of UKIP, is to stand for the seat because he is dismayed by the Speaker’s role in the expenses scandal.
John Russell, who sent the complaint, received a letter from The Friends of Speaker Bercow asking for a donation.
In the letter the Friends say: “As Speaker of the House of Commons, in accordance with convention, John has had to resign his membership of the Conservative Party in order to fulfil the duties of his office. He will be standing at the forthcoming election without the financial support of a major political party. This means that John will have to fully fund his own campaign and this is why we need your help.”
Mr Russell writes that he has since learnt that the Friends received contact details of potential donors from the Speaker’s Office.
He added: “I fully understand there is nothing illegal for such a group to be supporting Mr Bercow, but using/operating out of the Speakers Office is surely a breach of procedure. I would urge the commissioner to at least investigate whether the group are operating from or being supported by the Speakers Office.”
Speaking to The Times, Frank Donlon, the secretary of the Friends, defined the suggestion of possible impropiety as “absolute rubbish”.
Mr Donlon said that the list of potential donors was compiled and disseminated by Mr Bercow rather than Commons’ officials.
Mr Donlon said: “He created a list of people whom he thought would be sympathetic to the cause.” Mr Donlon rejected claims that calling party fundraisers the Friends of Speaker Bercow allied the MP’s election campaign with the taxpayer-funded office.
The battle for the Buckingham seat will be tough. Earlier this week it emerged that Stuart Wheeler, the spread-betting millionaire, is planning to donate about £100,000 to UKIP, which he believes has a chance of winning one Westminister seat — that of Buckingham.
Although Mr Bercow had the biggest majority of any Conservative MP at the last election the frost that has descended over his relationship with the Tory party as well as the febrile nature of British politics after the expenses scandal, has led at least one respected pollster to argue that the Speaker may struggle to hold on to Buckingham.
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