"ORDER!" (Silence!) His thunderous voice will soon no longer call the Westminster deputies to order, and his fanciful ties will soon be replaced by the interminable debates of Brexit. A key figure in the UK parliamentary scene, 56-year-old John Bercow said on Monday (September 9th) that he would step down by October 31, the date of the planned divorce from the EU.
In recent months, the "speaker" has been regularly accused of bias, Brexit supporters reproach him for playing with the parliamentary rules to their detriment, despite a function requiring him to remain neutral.
In late August, he called a "constitutional scandal" the decision of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to suspend Parliament in the final stretch of Brexit. Before the implementation of this suspension on Monday, he allowed MEPs to hold an emergency debate that ultimately allowed them to pass a law that thwarted the leader's plan to leave the EU without compromise.
In March, John Bercow had taken the then-Theresa May-led executive by surprise by refusing a new vote on the Brexit deal negotiated with the EU but already rejected by MEPs. At the beginning of January, against the use, he had decided to put to the vote an amendment to the draft Brexit of the government. His initiative, which reduced the room for maneuver of the executive for the benefit of parliamentarians, had been judged favorable to the pro-EU camp by the eurosceptic camp.
If he put forward family reasons as a pretext for his departure, John Bercow also made it very clear: "We are degrading this Parliament to our own peril."
An emotional farewell speech
From his 1m68, John Bercow, a conservative from a modest background, was a thorn in the foot of successive Tory governments. David Cameron, the predecessor of Theresa May, had even tried to oust him, to no avail.
With his black silk dress and gaudy neckties, he was given the privilege of directing the debates, with thundering reminders ("Order!") And truculent replicas. Above all, his personal - and liberal - interpretation of his attributions gave him a more decisive role than that of his predecessors.
He has the most beautiful neckties of the United Kingdom and the meaning of the formula. He especially punctuated the debate on #Brexit and defended the colors of #Westminster.
John #Bercow resigns. @Virginie_Herz @ France24_en #order pic.twitter.com/djA5PC21wv
Tears in his eyes, he mentioned Monday "a wonderful place, filled very largely with people motivated by their notion of the national interest, their perception of the common good and their sense of duty, not as mere delegates but as responsible representatives to do what they believe is good for our country. "
Before raising criticism for his management of Brexit exchanges, he had criticized the Conservative benches for standing against Donald Trump's speech in Parliament during the US President's visit to the United Kingdom. in 2018.
The youngest incumbent
Born on January 19, 1963, John Bercow grew up in North London. His father was a taxi driver.
He began to engage in politics at the university and then became a city councilor in London's Lambeth district at age 23. In 1997, he was elected for the first time, in the constituency of Buckingham, in the northwest of the capital.
In 2009, he rose to the presidency of the House of Commons under a Labor government, promising to break with the practices of his predecessor, involved in a scandal of expense reports and forced to resign. When they came to power in 2010, the Conservatives kept it there.
Youngest holder of this prestigious position, at age 46, John Bercow worked to dust it off, abandoning some elements of the traditional dress like the wig. In June 2017, it allows members to sit without a tie.
Shortly after his arrival on the green chair of the "speaker", placed between the benches of the majority and opposition facing each other, it provoked a controversy by claiming thousands of pounds to renovate his office apartment at Parliament to welcome his three children.
His wife, Sally Bercow, also made headlines in the press, for reasons often far removed from politics: she posed only dressed in a white sheet for a magazine, participated in a reality TV program, and maintained an extramarital relationship with her husband's cousin.
Above all, she ran in 2010 in a local election under the label of the Labor Party, the main political opponent of the original formation of her husband. The latter had nevertheless defended himself, explaining: "My wife does not belong to me, it is only my wife."
With AFP