LABOUR MPs have rallied behind John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, describing the attempt by Conservative MPs to oust him as “spiteful and malicious”.
James Duddridge, who represents Rochford and Southend East, tabled a parliamentary early day motion[EDM] of no confidence in Mr Bercow as Westminster rose for a half-term recess and predicted he could be "dead in the water" within days if MPs made public their private concerns about the Speaker.
By Friday evening, a petition on change.org calling on Mr Bercow to go had reached almost 11,000 names.
Mr Duddridge would not be drawn on how many MPs he expected to support his motion but said: "I have been amazed at the number of emails, texts, saying: 'Carry on as you are doing, James, we totally support you.'
"Some of those were quite keen to get actively involved, some were a little bit more happy that someone else was doing it rather than them.”
The Tory backbencher added: “I have got absolute confidence that a majority of MPs will be in the 'he's not doing a good job and should go' category. How many of those will go as far as voting in a vote of no confidence and how many will sign up to an EDM, I genuinely don't know."
The calls for the Speaker to stand aside were sparked after he made clear he did not think Donald Trump should address both Houses of Parliament during the US President’s forthcoming state visit. He suggested Mr Trump was racist and sexist.
While some MPs applauded Mr Bercow, others believed he had overstepped the mark of neutrality, which they believe is central to the Speaker’s role.
Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke backed Mr Duddridge’s motion, saying that although Mr Trump's "faith-based migrant ban" was discriminatory and wrong, Mr Bercow had "politicised the office of Speaker and his position is untenable".
However, Labour and SNP MPs rallied behind Mr Bercow.
Labour backbencher Jess Phillips dismissed the Speaker's critics, tweeting: "Loads of Tories don't like Bercow because he's trying to reform the Commons and make it more representative. Notably a load of rich blokes.”
Senior Labour MP Andy Burnham and Shadow Cabinet ministers Barbara Keeley and Kate Osamor also expressed their support for the Speaker.
Their veteran colleague David Winnick predicted the bid to oust Mr Bercow would fail.
"It is a spiteful and malicious campaign and there are enough people on the Conservative side and on the opposition benches who know that Mr Bercow has been first and foremost a champion of the backbenchers."
Mr Winnick added: "It is a strange situation to condemn the Speaker for speaking out against sexism and racism."
Meantime, SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh praised Mr Bercow for being a modernising Speaker.
"James Duddridge has mentioned previously that he has an objection to a modernising Speaker, well, we need to take the House of Commons into the 21st century and take it out of what would seem to be a Hogwarts-type of debating society that many Tory MPs want it to be," she added.
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