- Re: Face palm. Nm Archived Message
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on January 19, 2020, 7:33 am, in reply to "Face palm. Nm"
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John Bercow nominated for peerage by Jeremy Corbyn Gabriel Pogrund January 19 2020 John Bercow says Brexit is Britain’s biggest post-war mistake Jeremy Corbyn has nominated John Bercow, the former Commons Speaker, for a peerage, The Sunday Times can reveal. Bercow, a former right-wing Conservative MP who helped resist Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy in parliament, became the first holder of his role in 230 years not to be offered a House of Lords seat upon resigning last year. Tom Watson, Labour’s former deputy leader, and Karie Murphy, Corbyn’s chief of staff, also appear on a leaked list of nominees ahead of the upcoming dissolution honours. They are joined by five former MPs, advisers and trade unionists. Murphy’s likely ennoblement will be explosive in the party, as she is blamed for “bullying”, failing to tackle anti-semitism and Labour’s election defeat. However, Bercow’s nomination will prove most divisive. It is unknown if he will sit as a Labour peer or a crossbencher. But the decision marks his transformation from a Monday Club activist who called for the “repatriation” of immigrants to a Speaker accused of letting his pro-remain sympathies cloud his judgment. He was also accused of bullying by former staffers while in office, which he denies. Since leaving his role, he has described Brexit as Britain’s biggest postwar mistake. Last night Labour declined to comment. The news of Bercow’s prospective nomination sparked criticism, with the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which vets nominees, still able to intervene. Martin Vickers, the Conservative MP for Cleethorpes, said: “Some will be delighted that John has been nominated after trying to stop Brexit and inadvertently giving the Conservatives our biggest majority in decades. I am just glad the nomination did not come from my party.” Several allies of John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, also appear on the list. They include Prem Sikka — one of his “favourite economists” and a professor of accounting at Sheffield University — and Bryn Davies, a pensions expert who helped draft Labour’s £58bn manifesto pledge to compensate members of the Waspi generation of women who have suffered financial loss by the raising of the state pension age. The rest are allies of Corbyn’s, including Katy Clark, a former aide who will receive a seat in the upper chamber after repeatedly seeking a parliamentary seat ahead of the December general election. Sue Hayman, the former MP for Workington, who lost her seat at the last election, is also on the list. The Tories spent much of their campaign targeting the “Workington Man” demographic, making her seat a symbol of Tory gains in Labour’s heartlands in the north and Midlands. She is joined by Tony Woodley, 72, the former joint general secretary of the union Unite. He was a member of the so-called “awkward squad” of union barons who opposed New Labour policies and famously ripped up a copy of The Sun headlined “Labour’s lost it” at the 2009 Labour Party conference. Last night, Labour activists and MPs called on Corbyn to rescind Murphy’s nomination. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/john-bercow-nominated-for-peerage-by-jeremy-corbyn-x5b0980lx |