Here's one guaranteed to get Tory MPs choking on their cornflakes. Speaker Bercow's wife Sally was last night selected as one of the three Labour candidates for Westminster council. Westminster's Labour leader Paul Dimoldenberg is a huge fan of Mrs Bercow and says he's delighted she has stuck with the party despite her husband's elevation to the Speaker's chair . He tells me: "She will make a great candidate and a really first rate councillor. She's very approachable and very keen to get stuck into the nitty gritty of being a councillor." Mrs Bercow is standing in St James' Ward, which covers Parliament and Buck House, so can certainly claim she's a local. The Tories will almost certainly win the seat, if history is anything to go by. But with a long-standing councillor, Alexander Nicoll standing down after many years, Labour think they have a chance of a high-profile coup. UPDATE: A shadow frontbencher told me that this story, more than anything else today, is the hottest topic in the Tea Room. Labour MPs say that there is no reason why the Speaker's wife cannot stand in her own right as a political candidate. To suggest otherwise would be "antedilu12 November 2009 10:50 AM
Speaker's wife to stand for Labour
Thursday 12 November 2009
Posts
