Politics

John Bercow to receive ‘six figure sum’ for memoir book deal on his 10 year Speaker reign


John Bercow will cash in on his controversial tenure as Commons Speaker as he has announced he will publish his memoirs in a book titled Unspeakable in February next year. The book received significant interest from publishers and Mr Bercow is believed to have secured a sum “comfortably” into six figures, according to The Guardian. It will retail for £20 and will detail his childhood, journey in to Parliament and his 10 year stint as Commons Speaker, including his dealings with the past five prime ministers.

Speaking about the release of the book, Mr Bercow said he hopes to draw attention to his attempts to “do the right, rather than the convenient thing” during his time as House Speaker.

He said: “From childhood to Parliament to the Speakership, I have tried to describe as clearly as I can what motivated me, what I aimed to achieve and what the results were.

“I made friends and enemies alike, but from start to finish I sought to do the right, rather than the convenient, thing and to be a decent public servant.

“The story of a rewarding and fortunate career is told in my own words, and readers can make their own assessment of a journey that I enjoyed and they will judge.”

Mr Bercow will give his verdicts on the former prime ministers, including Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson – who he has frequently clashed with over Brexit.

The memoir is also set to go into detail about his own motivations in using the Speakership “to champion the rights of backbench MPs and hold the Government to account”.

Mr Bercow had repeatedly come under fire undermining the Government’s Brexit plans and has been accused of “unilaterally chaining the rules” to allow Tory Remainers to take control of the Commons.

For instance he allowed a motion to vote on the Benn Bill, which eventually passed into law and forced the Prime Minister to seek a Brexit delay from the EU.

JUST IN: Election poll latest: Tories get huge 14 point lead over Labour amid Farage backtrack

He said he planned to stay on to navigate the Brexit crisis engulfing Parliament and said he did not feel it was “sensible to vacate the chair” while there were momentous events before the Commons.

But Mr Bercow eventually announced his resignation this summer, after the Tories announced plans to run a candidate against him in the next general election in an attempt to end his political career.

He stood down as Speaker and MP on October 31 and Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Mr Bercow’s deputy, was elected to replace him in the coveted role last week.

Mr Bercow’s book is set to be published on February 6, 2020.

Weidenfeld chairman Alan Samson, who acquired the memoir from Andrew Gordon of David Higham Associates, said the memoirs were “both a grippingly candid narrative of a truly eventful political life, and also a wonderfully vivid tale of how the nation has reached this point in its history”.

He said: “In the last decade John has made sure that Parliament has been able to stand up to the executive by putting MPs before ministers.

“Whether it is by accepting urgent questions or working hard to determine that the role of parliament is more widely understood by the public, he has played a vital activist role in the Government being held to account.

“His book will be a hugely entertaining primer for anyone trying to understand the nature of our democracy and the processes of modern politics in this country.”



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.