John Bercow warns frontbenchers against leaking his private discussions with them

Last week Simon Burns MP raised a point of order expressing concern that John Bercow's announcement about holding elections for the Deputy Speakers had appeared in the media before the Speaker had made the statement to the House.

Speaker Bercow has just made a stern statement to the Commons in which he insisted that the leak had not come from him or his office - and that the only other people who knew of his announcement were the respective frontbenches with whom he had discussed the matter in advance.

His clear implication being that the leak came from one of the frontbenches, the Speaker said that he would "no longer feel able to hold such consultations" if they were unable to be kept confidential, since such breaches of confidence harm the reputation of the House and are not something he would tolerate.

Jonathan Isaby