Abbott Told She’s Being “Foolish” With Comments Defending John Bercow

Senior Labour MP, Diane Abbott has come under fire for a recent tweet in which she claims accusations against the former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow was “unlikely” to be true.

Last month an official complaint was made against Mr Bercow.

Diane Abbott has since claimed accustations made against John Bercow by former Black Rod, David Leakey, were unlikely.

She argued that because Mr Leakey was a former member of the armed forces. She tweeted: “Allegations come from former parliamentary official David Leakey. He had been a Lieutenant General who serviced in Germany. Northern Ireland and Bosnia. But claims he was bullied (i.e initiated and coerced) by John Bercow. Unlikely.”

She has since deleted the tweet.

A spokesman said: “She’s deleted her tweet, I believe for reasons that she was worried it might be misinterpreted. As a matter of course, all allegations of bullying should always be taken seriously and investigated and I’m sure Diane agrees with that.”

David Leakey is against the former Commons Speaker being awarded a peerage. Mr Leakey said: “It’s not opportunistic, I called him out two years ago and I did so because I was speaking up for people who were unable to speak out for one reason or another.”

“If John Bercow was given a peerage in the House of Lords it would be a scandal that Parliament would struggle to live down,”

MP Bob Seely claimed Abbott’s remarks were “foolish”. He said: “Her comments are foolish.”

Earlier this week John Bercow completely denied all accustations of bullying and rejected any claims made by former Black Rod, David Leakey, he told the Sky News host: “Total and utter rubbish, from start to finish. I notice how hesitant David Leakey was in developing his case as though he was choosing his words carefully. Total and utter rubbish.

“First point is that David Leakey didn’t work for me, he wasn’t employed by me, he wasn’t an employee of the House of Commons.”

Lucy Fisher described the comments made by the Shadow Home Secretary as “unsettling”.

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