John Bercow urges ‘narcissist’ Boris Johnson to ‘beetle off into the distance’ in scathing attack

John Bercow has branded Boris Johnson a “narcissist” in a blistering attack in which he accused the prime minister of being “responsible for a catalogue of failures”.

The former Speaker of the House of Commons said that it is time that he exited Downing Street and “beetled off into the distance”.

Mr Bercow, a staunch supporter of the European Union, was a Tory MP for Buckingham before he quit Parliamnt in 2019 before defecting to Labour two years later.

He appeared on Sky News’ The Great Debate on Monday night and told host Trevor Phillips that Mr Johnson is “ritually dishonest”.

Mr Bercow said: “Never has a prime minister wielded so much power, made so little effective use of it and been and been seen to be in quite such an indecent haste to blow his own trumpet.

“I’ve been aware of 12 prime ministers in my lifetime, by a country mile Boris Johnson is the worst.

“He is a narcissist, he doesn’t do the detail, he’s ritually dishonest – having a nodding acquaintance with the truth at best only in a leap year.

“He is responsible for a catalogue of failures, he is the most inarticulate public speaker and prime minister I have ever known, he has no redeeming virtues, he has stayed there far too long.

“It is time that he gave up office and beetled off into the distance, which would be an enormous relief – not just to this country and to the European continent, but to the world.”

Mr Bercow then jokes: “And one of these days, Trevor, I’ll try to tell you what I really think.”

Last month on his podcast Absolute Power, he called on Mr Johnson to resign, and blasted him as “shameless” and “totally narcissistic”.

Mr Bercow criticised Mr Johnson over the ‘Partygate’ scandal after it was revealed that events were held in a number of government buildings while strict coronavirus lockdown rules were in force – 12 of which are being investigated by police.

Mr Bercow said that the prime minister’s apology in parliament after it was reported that he attended a Downing Street garden party, and insisting he believed it was a work event, was “absolutely dreadful”.

Before he stood down as Speaker and Buckingham MP, the pair often locked horns over the Withdrawal Agreement Act’s passage through the Commons ahead of Britain’s departure from the EU in 2020.

Mr Bercow has been embroiled in his own scandal involving allegations that he bullied a number of Commons staff, which he was found guilty of by an inquiry that he denounced in January as a “kangaroo court”.