John Bercow: David Cameron thinks people like him are 'born to rule'
The former speaker refuses to reveal how he will vote in the upcoming general election on 12 December.
Sunday 10 November 2019 13:24, UK
John Bercow has launched a stinging attack on David Cameron just days after quitting as House of Commons Speaker - a role that has forced him to be impartial for the last ten years.
He claimed the former prime minister "thinks people like him are born-to-rule" and tore in to the decision to call a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.
"David is relentlessly tactical rather than strategic. Let's face it, he chose to call the referendum," the outgoing Buckingham MP told the Observer newspaper.
"Was there a clamour for it? There was not.
"There was chuntering in his own party, but the public wasn't demanding one. He just thought it would work for him."
Mr Bercow, who went to a comprehensive school, said Eton-educated Mr Cameron has the "most enormous, probably public-school-instilled, self-confidence".
"He thinks people like him are born to rule, that the natural order is that people like him run things, and that he is in a superior position," the outgoing Buckingham MP said.
In a move that will rouse much suspicion, Mr Bercow also refused to say how he would vote at the upcoming general election on Thursday 12 December.
He stood and was voted into parliament as a Conservative in 1997, before dropping the whip twelve years later to take on parliament's most senior role as Commons Speaker.
But after a series of furious battles over Brexit in parliament, Mr Bercow stood down on 31 October - what should have been the day of Britain's departure from the EU.
Some Tory Brexiteers accused Mr Bercow of having a strong pro-Remain bias, a claim he has previously dismissed.
The Brexit Election: For the fastest results service and in-depth analysis watch Sky News live from 9pm on Thursday 12 December, with a KayBurley@Breakfast election special on Friday 13 December