Speaker's wife slams 'whispering campaign' against him by Tories

The wife of Commons Speaker John Bercow has launched a tirade at Tory MPs she claimed were conducting a "whispering campaign" against him.

Sally Bercow said many Conservative MPs still could not accept her husband had won the contest to take the Speaker's chair when Michael Martin was forced out in 2009.

She branded rows between Tory figures and Mr Bercow as "ridiculous" and insisted her husband was doing a good job, adding: "Sod the whispering campaign".

In the latest bust-up senior Conservative backbencher Mark Pritchard allegedly swore at the Speaker in a behind-the-scenes confrontation in the Commons.

Mr Pritchard reportedly told Mr Bercow "you are not f****** royalty, Mr Speaker" during a confrontation in a Westminster corridor after the MP, who was refused permission to ask a Commons question, would not stand aside to let him pass by.

Mrs Bercow said yesterday: "The bottom line is a lot of Tories, I'm afraid, still can't accept that my husband won the speakership fair and square and is doing a very good job and he did it without Tory support.

"There will always be a whispering campaign but if you look at John and what he has done in the job, he has introduced a lot of urgent questions, basically he is on the side of backbenchers."

Mr Bercow was a Tory MP before becoming Speaker, but was viewed as a maverick by many party colleagues. He was elected Speaker with strong Labour and Liberal Democrat support.