"Tin ear" Bercow sparks fresh Tory row

It's been a while since we had some decent Tory anger against Speaker John Bercow, but with Christmas looming large today's PMQs delivered a gift.

Towards the end of the Cameron-Miliband exchanges, Bercow leapt to his feet to correct the PM for the use of "you". As noise raged, he turned to his right - towards the naughty corner - and said "I'm glad the Minister of State has returned from his travels and we wish him a Merry Christmas but in his case it should be a quiet one". (It's at 10m33s here).

Mr Speaker appeared to be aiming his comments at Health Minister Simon Burns - who famously branded Bercow a "stupid, sanctimonious dwarf" - whose colleagues leapt to his defence. Foreign Office Minister Keith Simpson gestured at Bercow to sit down, and could be seen mouthing "stupid man", while others patted Burns on the shoulder.

After the session, Simpson insisted Burns - a "serial offender" - wasn't to blame this time as he launched an attack on the Speaker.

"I do not have any time for the man. He has got a tin ear. He doesn't know when to intervene or not," he said.

"He comes out with these appalling cliches (about the noise), all this business about 'the public don't like it, I don't like it', but I'm pretty sure my 88-year-old mother is sitting in front of the TV screaming that she does like it.

"(Burns) would happily take the rap but for once it wasn't him."

With a neat jibe at Chris Huhne, he went on: "He picked on old Burnsy, who tends to be a serial offender, but in fact it wasn't Burns - it was one of the younger lads standing to Burns's left. I said to him, it's like a man who is always speeding up and down the M11 and then gets caught when he is not driving. That's life. It's much easier to pick on a man who is a serial offender."

It will be interesting to see whether Simpson's frank words get him in trouble with Bercow. He did admit: "Every time the Speaker interferes and leaps up and down he tends to bring out the worst in me."

Simpson joins a growing list of Tory MPs (former colleagues, let's not forget) who have spoken out against the Speaker. Mark Pritchard accused him of acting like "f***ing royalty", Claire Perry asked whether she had to grant him oral sex to get called in debates, and both Nadine Dorries and Chief Whip Patrick McLoughlin have clashed with him.

Craig Woodhouse
Follow me on Twitter @craigawoodhouse