MPs in no mood for another beheading as Bercow survives

JOHN Bercow was returned as Commons Speaker yesterday after an attempt to remove him was cast aside by the vast majority of MPs.

As the new-look Commons met for the first time since the General Election, a small number of MPs tried to force a vote on Mr Bercow's future as Speaker. But their calls were overwhelmed by a roar of approval for his continued tenure, and the Father of the House, Sir Peter Tapsell, refused to order a formal division.

The abortive bid to oust the Speaker came after David Cameron took his Commons seat as Prime Minister for the first time. He was cheered into the chamber by Tory MPs and, in another first, sat next to Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister.

The last time Conservative and Liberal ministers sat alongside each other on the government front bench was during Winston Churchill's wartime coalition, which ended in 1945.

There are 226 new faces in the Commons – more than a third of the 650-seat chamber – after the expenses scandal prompted the biggest exodus in living memory at the General Election.

"It really does look and feel different," Mr Cameron said. "Indeed, many of us are sitting next to people that we've never sat next to before."

With the Lib Dems joining the Tories in the coalition administration, the MPs of both parties shifted sides to the government benches. Labour MPs were left with MPs from nationalist and other minor parties on the opposition benches.

The swearing-in of MPs will begin today, starting with the Speaker.

MPs can choose to swear on the New Testament or Old Testament (in English or Hebrew), the Koran, the Sikh holy scriptures the Granth, the Welsh Bible or the Gaelic Bible. A non-religious option is to affirm the oath.