The Sunday Telegraph 28.06.2009 reveals more details of John Bercow's £40,000 private income. Page 7 Quote by Patrick Sawer & Melissa Kite: 'The new Commons Speaker was accused last night of profiting from his work as a government adviser on special educational needs. John Bercow was paid £40,000 by a health care firm which hired him after he wrote a report that led to a £52 million increase in special needs funding. The MP worked for six months for the Priory Group, which runs a number of special needs schools, giving advice about children who suffer from speech and language difficulties. He attended around five board meetings before he resigned from the post on becoming Speaker last week The payments declared by Mr Bercow in the Register of Members' Interests will now raise questions about the propriety of MPs taking money from firms working in an area in which they have dealt directly in Parliament.
Tory opponents of Mr Berocow, who was voted in as Michael Martin's replacement despite little support from his own party, said the disclosures cast fresh doubts on his suitability as Speaker. " This calls into question his judgement. He appears to have profited from his work as Brown's adviser", said one MP.
Mr Bercow, once a member of the right-wing Monday Club but now on the left of his party, has also been criticised for "flipping" the designation of his second home, enabling him to avoid paying capital gains tax.' Unquote. End

Quote from Daily Telegraph today 07.07.09 page 6:

'While it is customary that the main political parties do not contest the Speaker's seat, Tories in John Bercow's constituency in Buckingham have been discussing the possibility of putting forward an independent candidate against him, Mandrake hears.
Less than a month after Bercow's appointment no decision appears to have been reached, but Margaret Aston, a councillor for Haddenham, who confirmed she heard a meeting had taken place, tells me:'I'm keeping my head down on this one,'' Adding to the intrigue, a spokesman for the Buckingham Conservative Association said: " I don't want to give anything away that I can't give away." Unquote Edited by Laura Roberts.'

Hallelujah! Could it be the penny has dropped about the 'real John Bercow' with Buckingham Conservative Association at last?

If this story is true I must resist saying, 'Have you now realised what some of us have been trying to tell you for more than five years?'

This article is slightly out of date. UKIP is now fielding Nigel Farrage as the candidate for Buckingham. Nigel Farrage has stepped down as leader of UKIP specifically to take on the task of winning this seat.

Another important correction to make would be that the speaker has been challenged in the past. The speaker's seat was contested once before in the 1980s and on several other occasions so it is not particularly unusual.