Former speaker John Bercow to be denied peerage
Former speaker John Bercow is expected this week to be denied a life peerage, after being nominated in Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation list.
Bercow is set to be denied by the House of Lords Appointments Commission due to persistent bullying allegations while he was House of Commons speaker.
The commission is also expected to deny the honour to former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson and former Corbyn chief of staff Karie Murphy.
Sources aware of the process told the Daily Mail that the new list of House of Lords appointees will be unveiled this week, with former Tory chancellors Philip Hammond and Ken Clarke to get the nod.
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Former cricketer Sir Ian Botham and former Tory Scottish leader Ruth Davidson will join them.
Bercow would be the first speaker in 230 years to not ascend to the House of Lords, after retiring from the role.
He has been accused by multiple House of Commons staff of being consistently abusive toward them – a charge he denies.
It is believed that Murphy will be knocked back from the House of Lords due to concerns about her role in handling antisemitism complaints concerning Labour members.
An Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigation into antisemitism within the party is due this summer.
Watson, meanwhile, has been taken off the list because of his role in championing the cause of fantasist Carl Beech who claimed that a ring of establishment figures had sexually abused him as a child.
The claims turned out to be fake and he is now serving an 18-year jail term.