Parliamentary reporter @TrinderMatt

FORMER Tory MP and Commons speaker John Bercow has defected to Labour, slamming the Conservatives as “reactionary, populist, nationalistic and xenophobic.”

The ex-Buckingham MP, who stepped down as speaker in 2019 after 10 years, said on Saturday he had joined Labour as he now shares its values and wants to help the party remove Prime Minister Boris Johnson from office.

Rejecting claims that he is seeking revenge after the PM refused to nominate the anti-Brexit campaigner for a peerage, Mr Bercow told the Observer: “I am motivated by support for equality, social justice and internationalism: that is the Labour brand.”

Blasting the Tory decision to cut international aid, he also warned that Mr Johnson has no interest in fulfilling his “levelling up” agenda.

“I don’t think he has any vision of a more equitable society, any thirst for social mobility or any passion to better the lot of people less fortunate than he is. I think increasingly people are sick of lies [and] empty slogans.”

Asked if he believed Labour could win the next general election under Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Bercow said “the jury is out.”

Labour’s embattled leader announced an overhaul of his office today after the party recorded its worst ever by-election result in Chesham & Amersham on Thursday, securing just 622 votes. 

The decision to move chief-of-staff Morgan McSweeney to a new role came after two other senior communications officials, Ben Nunn and Paul Ovenden, said they were stepping down, citing personal reasons.

After the Tories took Hartlepool for the first time last month, Sir Keir faces another stern by-election test in Batley & Spen on July 1, with polls suggesting the West Yorkshire seat could fall to the Tories for the first time since 1992.