Background

John Bercow was born on January 19, 1963, in Edgware, United Kingdom, to the family of a taxi driver Charles Bercow and Brenda Bailey. His father was born to a family of Jewish immigrants from Romania in the early 20th century who having settled in the United Kingdom anglicized its surname from Berkowitz to Bercow. His mother converted to Judaism. In his teens, Bercow had been ranked Britain's No.1 junior tennis player, but came down with bronchial asthma and was unable to pursue a professional career. In 1975 he appeared on the British children's television series Crackerjack!

Education

Bercow studied at Frith Manor Primary School in Woodside Park. He also attended Finchley Manorhill, a large comprehensive school in North Finchley. Bercow graduated with a First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from the University of Essex in 1985.

Career

From 1986 to 1987, John Bercow served as National Chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students, and in 1987 he was appointed by Norman Tebbit as Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Collegiate Forum to head the campaign for student support in the run-up to the 1987 general election. He also had a spell at Hambros Bank.

Bercow became a Conservative councilor in the London Borough of Lambeth in 1986 (until 1990) and serving from 1987 to 1989 as deputy leader of the 21 strong Conservative Opposition Group. At the time he was the youngest deputy group leader in the country. He stood as a Conservative candidate in Motherwell South in 1987 and for Bristol South in 1992. 1n 1995, Bercow was appointed Special Adviser to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and later served as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for National Heritage.

For many years, Bercow has run successful public speaking courses. He has lectured in the United States to students of the Leadership Institute.

John Bercow was elected as Member of Parliament for Buckingham in May 1997, with a majority of 12,386. In May 2005, he was re-elected with an increased majority of 18,129. In June 1999, he was appointed Front Bench Spokesman for Education & Employment. In July 2000, he was appointed Front Bench Spokesman for Home Affairs. In September 2001, he was appointed Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. From July 2002 to November 2002, he was Shadow Minister for Work & Pensions. From November 2003 to September 2004, he was Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.

Bercow has been a member of the International Development Select Committee since November 2004. He is co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Burma, vice-Chair of the All-Party Groups on the Prevention of Genocide, Africa and Sudan. He is also Secretary of the All-Party Group on Human Rights. In July 2005, Bercow established the All-Party Group on Brain Tumours to raise awareness of issues surrounding brain tumour care.

In September 2007, Bercow was appointed by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools, and Families, to lead a review of services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. The final report of the Review was published in July 2008. Bercow was appointed to the Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary Representation in November 2008. The Conference has been asked to ‘consider, and make recommendations for rectifying, the disparity between the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons and their representation in the UK population at large’. The Conference has until the end of the Parliament to conduct its inquiries.

Bercow's most recent publications include, 'Incoming Assets: why Tories should change policy on immigration and asylum' (Social Market Foundation, October 2005) and 'Promote Freedom or Protect Oppressors: the choice at the UN Review Summit' (Foreign Policy Centre, September 2005).

In 2009, John Bercow became the Speaker in Parliament, after finishing first in all three rounds of voting and winning the final poll with 322 votes to Sir George Young's 271 votes. On 6 February 2017, John Bercow made a noteworthy statement in the House of Commons, in which he expressed his opposition to the United States President Donald Trump addressing the United Kingdom Parliament. On 9 September 2019, John Bercow gave an emotional speech in the House of Commons announcing his resignation as Speaker if Parliament votes for an early election. In January 2020, Lord Lisvane, who had served as Clerk of the House, submitted a formal complaint about John Bercow to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

Achievements

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  John Bercow became a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in 2009 which gives him the honorific title "The Right Honourable" for life. Bercow was the first Speaker who is Jewish, the first Speaker to have been elected by an exhaustive ballot, and the first Speaker not to wear traditional court robes while presiding over the House of Commons. He received Freedom of the City of London on 4 July 2016. In November 1998, Bercow was given the award of Backbencher to Watch in The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards. In February 2005, in a ballot of his parliamentary colleagues, he won the Channel Four/Hansard Society Political Award for Opposition Member of Parlament of the Year for 2005. In December 2005, Bercow was voted the Backbencher of the Year in The House Magazine awards. Bercow was named Health/International Champion of the Year at the Charity Champion Awards 2007.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Unspeakable

    (Unspeakable is John Bercow's characteristically forthrigh...)

    2020
  • Tennis Maestros: The Twenty Greatest Male Tennis Players of All Time

    (At the highest echelons of tennis, a few names stand out....)

    2014

Religion

John Bercow was born in a Jewish family and is known to be Judaist. Nevertheless, when discussing the role of clergy in Parliament, he described himself in a Commons debate as "an irreligious person taking a secular interest in an important subject."

Politics

John Bercow was elected Conservative Member of Parlament for Buckingham in 1997. But in the early 2000s, his political views altered. He became a champion of gay rights and said a clampdown on cannabis smokers would be "absurd." After entering the shadow cabinet, he called for Conservative Members of Parlament to be banned from membership of the Monday Club. Having established himself as one of the Conservative Party's most outspoken social liberals, he had to fend off persistent rumours he was poised to defect to Labour. And his election as Speaker was more popular on the Labour benches than the Conservative ones. Being elected in accordance with convention, he rescinded his Conservative party membership. In 2015, with Labour's support, he survived after a proposed rule change that was seen as an attempt to oust him by the Tory government.

Bercow - who supported Remain in the European Union referendum - has played a key role in the parliamentary debate around prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. His decision on Monday that the deal cannot be put to a third vote without substantial changes was a constitutional bombshell.

Views

Bercow has supported a number of charities. He is a Patron of the ME Association (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association), Brain Tumour Research and a Patron of the Patchwork Foundation founded by Harris Bokhari. He has also spoken at and supported other charities such as the mental health charity Jami. He recently supported a fundraiser for Children in Need.

Quotations: "Nobody these days would regard it as acceptable to criticize someone on grounds of race or creed or disability or sexual orientation."

"I'm not psychic. I cannot know what is in the mind of particular public figures."

"Fairness is not about statistical equality."

"I don't think that people are disinterested or uninterested in politics. I think very often they are disengaged from the formal political process. To some extent they are suspicious or even despairing of formal politics as a means to give expression and effect to what they want."

"The Conservatives must realise that being sceptical is different from being phobic in what is an interdependent world."

"It's a cowardly form of politics to use my spouse to beat me."

"Possibly the fact that I was physically quite feeble, a relatively short little fellow, attracted me to that idea of a very authoritative and aggressive version of Conservative politics."

"It is quite wrong for party conferences to be used as an excuse for the Commons not to sit. Conferences could be held at weekends."

"I do strongly believe myself that members of the government who sit in the House of Lords should be accountable to the elected House because otherwise there is a democratic deficit, and that is wrong."

"I'm not in the business of warning people."

Membership

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  As a young activist, Bercow was a member of the right-wing Conservative Monday Club. He stood as a candidate for the club's national executive. In 1981 he produced a personal manifesto stated that: "The strengthening of our national identity demands a program of assisted repatriation." Although Bercow, then a politics student at Essex University, did not win the nomination, he did become the secretary of the Club's immigration and repatriation committee, which called for "an end to New Commonwealth and Pakistan immigration, a properly financed system of voluntary repatriation, the repeal of the Race Relations Act and the abolition of the Commission for Racial Equality." Bercow has since described his membership of the Monday Club as "utter madness" and dismissed his views from that time as "boneheaded." Bercow left the Monday Club in 1982, saying he found its views "unpalatable."

  The Monday Club , United Kingdom

Personality

Bercow faced calls to quit as speaker following an independent probe into claims of a bullying culture in the Commons. Not only did he face intense pressure to stand down over his leadership on the issue, but he was also accused of bullying officials - claims he strongly denies. His role came under scrutiny because of historical allegations that he shouted at and swore at staff. Former private secretary, Angus Sinclair, told Newsnight that Bercow tried to physically intimidate him. The Speaker was also alleged to have bullied former private secretary, Kate Emms. He denied all the allegations. Bercow faced accusations of vanity after commissioning a portrait of himself which reportedly cost the taxpayer £37,000. The painting, which hangs in the Speaker's House alongside those of former Speakers, cost £22,000 while "framing and heraldic painting" cost a further £15,000. The portrait, which shows Bercow on duty in his chair in the Commons, was added to the Parliamentary Art Collection. It was criticized as a "vanity portrait" for its "excessive" cost to the taxpayer. House of Commons Curator Malcolm Hay said the artist had done well in "capturing Speaker Bercow's presence."

Physical Characteristics: John Bercow's height is 5 feet 6 inches, which is 167.6 centimeters.

Quotes from others about the person

• "The problem with John Bercow is that he discovered sex and New Labour at the same time." - Anonimous shadow Cabinet minister

Interests

• swimming, reading, music

• Politicians

  Enoch Powell

• Writers

  Charles Dickens

• Artists

  Brendan Kelly

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis, squash, soccer, Arsenal F.C.

• Music & Bands

  Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Edward William Elgar, Antonín Leopold Dvořák, Sergei Prokofiev

Connections

John Bercow married Sally Illman in 2002 after 13 years of an "on-off" relationship, and they have three children: Oliver, born in December 2003, Freddie, born in November 2005 and Jemima, born in April 2008. Their elder son, Oliver, has autism.

Father:

Charles Bercow

Mother:

Brenda Bailey

Wife:

Sally Kate Bercow Illman

Sally Bercow, who used to be a Conservative, switched to supporting the Labour Party, campaigning for both her husband individually and Labour in the wider election in 1997. Bercow and those close to him reject the view that she was especially influential in changing his political views. Bercow has spoken of "periods of turbulence" in the marriage - Sally left him for a time and had an affair with his cousin Alan Bercow, after which he made preparations to divorce her - but described his wife as "a rock."

Son:

Oliver Bercow

Son:

Freddie Bercow

Daughter:

Jemima Bercow

Acquaintance:

David Cameron

Acquaintance:

Boris Johnson

References

• Bercow, Mr Speaker: Rowdy Living in the Tory Party by Bobby Friedman
  2011
• John Bercow