There was no ‘zombie parliament’ under John Bercow – Brexit made him a global star

Editorial: A reinvigorated Commons is one of the few positive developments to come out of this lengthy political crisis

His detractors – and there more than a few – called him “Squeaker Bercow”. It was not a particularly well-chosen soubriquet, even if intended satirically. John Bercow may have been diminutive, but his voice was big, and he was happy to use it, both literally and metaphorically, to defend the rights and prerogatives of the House of Commons. Parliament is the poorer for his retirement after a turbulent decade as speaker.

Bumptious, a bit of a show-off, at times insufferably pompous – yes, all of those things. But the most serious charge laid against Mr Bercow was that he was biased against either the Conservatives, or against Brexit, or, indeed, both. He was biased, always and everywhere, in favour of the Commons itself, which is to say in relation to an over-mighty executive, and in favour of the constitutional supremacy of the House of Commons, which was not abolished by the 2016 EU referendum.

As the years since the vote dragged on, as parliament itself became increasingly fragmented and fractious, and as the Brexit process grew more confused and chaotic, at times it seemed that the only figure standing in the way of a complete political meltdown was Mr Bercow.

The Commons has reasserted itself magnificently during Mr Bercow’s time, and he has played his own part in leading and supporting that revival. Even before Theresa May’s snap election of 2017 produced a highly unstable hung parliament, he was responding to backbenchers’ demands to make ministers accountable for their actions. He granted urgent questions and emergency debates on an unprecedented scale, but then again there have been many urgent issues and emergencies to warrant such scrutiny. He resisted, as best he could, the unlawful prorogation of parliament a few months ago, and stayed on for longer than he first promised, to help guide parliament through one of its most testing of episodes, and one that may well not yet be over.

Of course ministers of the crown did not like to lose control of the order of business in the Commons, which had long been run by the leader of the house and the cabinet. Yet when it was plainly the will of the house that MPs wished to reorder parliamentary business, for example to pass the Benn Act to outlaw no-deal Brexit without Commons approval, Mr Bercow made sure that MPs were allowed to do so. In any case such episodes were short and uncommon; for the most part the government continued to run Commons business, and it continued to try to run the country.

Mr Bercow’s record was not unblemished. He should not have called Andrea Leadsom a “stupid woman”, and he too often abused noisy MPs with his own peculiar brand of orotund rhetoric, derived, apparently, from a passion for the works of Jane Austen. Latterly he has moved from telling his critics to take “medicament” to doing some spectacularly poor impressions of the likes of Tony Benn and Willie Whitelaw. He was accused of bullying his staff – allegations that have been strenuously denied – and his wife Sally was probably unwise, from the point of view of the dignity of her husband’s position, to pose for photographs wearing only a bed sheet.

In many ways, Mr Bercow found himself re-enacting some of the skirmishes between crown and parliament that framed our modern constitutional monarchy in the 17th century. As royal prerogatives and powers have slipped from the monarch to the prime minister, it has been for the speaker of the Commons, the lord speaker of the Lords, and for parliament generally, to ensure that they do not become abused and that they are always exercised entirely with the consent of parliament. Mr Bercow, acting with the support of a majority of his fellow parliamentarians, redressed the balance between the legislature and the executive.

After the expenses scandal of a decade ago, and the unhappy speakership of Michael Martin, Mr Bercow did his best to restore some prestige to the institution.

Strange to say, a reinvigorated Commons is one of the few positive developments to come out of Brexit. And Brexit made John Bercow into a global star.

Far from presiding over a “zombie parliament”, Bercow’s Commons was alive and kicking. His successor has a tough act to follow.