Bercow gives boost to MPs fighting no-deal Brexit by insisting he will not quit as Speaker this summer

'Momentous events are taking place and there are great issues to be resolved....it doesn't seem to me sensible to vacate the chair'

John Bercow has given a further boost to MPs hoping to thwart a no-deal Brexit by insisting he will not quit the crucial Speaker’s chair this summer.

Some “friends” of Mr Bercow had suggested he was about to make way, but he insisted: “I've never said anything about going in July of this year.”

The Speaker added: “Now is a time in which momentous events are taking place and there are great issues to be resolved and, in those circumstances, it doesn't seem to me sensible to vacate the chair.”

The comments are a clear reference to threats by Boris Johnson and other Tory leadership contenders to crash out of the EU with no agreement in October, if necessary.

Mr Bercow had already warned Brexiteers that MPs could still block a no-deal, telling an audience in America: “The idea the House won't have its say is for the birds.”

He agreed leaving without a deal was the default position, but added: “There is a difference between a legal default position and what the interplay of different political forces in parliament will facilitate.”

The comments came after Dominic Raab, a leading Brexiteer candidate, predicted that MPs would fail to prevent him carrying out a Halloween night crash-out, if he won the race to No 10.

They suggest Mr Bercow will find a way for MPs to stage a vote – perhaps on an emergency debate, as he has hinted in the past – allowing a fresh law to block no-deal to be passed.

Some pro-EU Tories – including Philip Hammond, the chancellor – have floated toppling their own government by supporting a no-confidence vote, as another mechanism.

Mr Bercow’s decision to stay on will enrage hard-Brexit Conservatives who hoped his departure would ease the path to a Halloween night crash-out.

Speaking to The Guardian, he added: “If I had any intention to announce on that matter, I would do so to parliament first.”