John Bercow: the outspoken speaker who survived wrath of former Tory colleagues

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world

Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

John Bercow has been no stranger to the limelight since taking the Speaker's chair in 2009.

The Conservative MP with a high-profile, Labour-supporting wife has made a number of unconventional comments since he took over the impartial role from Michael Martin.

He has also survived attempts to remove him from the role, including from Tory colleagues, and revelations about his expenses.

His remarks from the chair include telling Labour's Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) she would have received an anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) if her rowdy behaviour had taken place outside the Commons.

He made the joke in January as he sought to quieten the chamber to allow Prime Minister Theresa May to respond to a question.

Later that month he was caught on microphone warning Cabinet minister Sir Michael Fallon it would be "stupid" to pick a fight with a senior MP.

He made the unguarded comment after the Defence Secretary had been grilled about reports that a Trident ballistic missile veered off course during a test firing.

Mr Bercow has suggested yoga to several MPs, including Labour's Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) and Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley), while calling for calm during heated debates.

He admonished MPs for repeatedly asking for a tea break or whether they could use the toilet during the long-running Brexit debate last week.

His decision to strip parliamentary officials of their traditional wigs on Monday was met with disapproval from a number of MPs.

In the last few years he has faced scrutiny over his expenses. In November it was revealed he had spent almost £20,000 of taxpayers' money to fly to a conference in Japan with an aide.

That followed revelations last February that he spent thousands of pounds wining and dining fellow MPs, plus almost £2,000 on a dinner with his Australian counterpart and hundreds of pounds to tune the grand piano in his apartments.

His office argued that the overall expenditure of the Speaker's Office has fallen during his tenure from £626,029 in 2009/10 to £504,737 in 2015/16.

Born on January 19 1963, the son of a Jewish taxi driver, Mr Bercow went to school in Margaret Thatcher's Finchley constituency and first got involved as politics as a teenager.

He attended Essex University, where he gained a reputation as something of a firebrand, and became a member of the hard-line Tory Monday Club, notorious for its "hang Nelson Mandela" slogans, joining its Immigration and Repatriation Committee.

At the age of 20 he left the pressure group, saying some of its members' views about immigration were "unpalatable".

After a short spell at Hambros Bank, Mr Bercow embarked on a career as a lobbyist, serving as a councillor in Lambeth, south London, at the same time.

At the 1992 general election he stood unsuccessfully against Labour's Dawn Primarolo in Bristol South.

Three years later he went into politics full-time, becoming special adviser to chief secretary to the treasury Jonathan Aitken until his resignation, and then to heritage secretary Virginia Bottomley.

Mr Bercow finally secured a berth in the safe seat of Buckingham, and - despite Labour's landslide victory - entered Parliament at the 1997 general election.

He was made shadow chief secretary when Iain Duncan Smith became Tory leader in 2001 before quitting the Conservative front bench in November 2002.

He became Speaker following Labour MP Mr Martin's resignation and has been re-elected twice, despite angering former Tory colleagues over his behaviour in the chair.

Nadine Dorries, his constituency near neighbour, was one of a handful of MPs who tried to have him removed in 2010. He was re-elected in 2015.

Mr Bercow married Sally Illman in 2002 and they have three children together.

The marriage has been a source of attention throughout his tenure, with his wife becoming a household name after posing for a photoshoot in Speaker's House draped in a sheet, and appearing on Celebrity Big Brother.

In 2015 she admitted she had been a "terrible wife" amid reports of an affair with her husband's cousin.

Press Association