Letter: Pedigree of a Tory student

John Bercow
Saturday 22 June 1996 23:02 BST
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Pedigree of a Tory student

PAUL Routledge implies that my leadership of the Federation of Conservative Students 10 years ago was responsible for its closure by Norman Tebbit ("Labour fingers Tory barmy army", 16 June). In fact Norman Tebbit warmly praised me as "that splendid chairman of the FCS" and appointed me to run the successor body, the Conservative Collegiate Forum.

Routledge is also wrong to claim that I was a member of the Bullingdon dining club at Oxford. It was from Essex University that I graduated.

If this is the sort of "research" which Labour's expensive database produces, the party's reputation for pouring money down the drain will remain intact.

John Bercow

Buckingham Constituency Conservative Association

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