Strip John Bercow's power to block foreign leaders from addressing Parliament

Rejected 15 signatures

What the petition asks

John Bercow has said that President Trump should not be invited to speak in the Houses of Parliament. Irrespective of your views on Trump, John Bercow has overstepped the mark as Speaker and should stand down. This power to veto democratically elected leaders must be stripped from both speakers.

The Speaker of the House of Commons should, indeed must, be neutral in his views. This is intrinsic to the position of Speaker. He cannot now chair the 20th February debate as he cannot call to speak MPs in a fair and balanced way.
John Bercow also dispensed with the constitution by not liaising with the speaker of the House of Lords before his outburst., and has brought the position of Speaker into disrepute.

Why it was rejected

It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.

At present, there are three keyholders for Westminster Hall—the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Speaker of the House of the Lords and the Lord Great Chamberlain. Ordinarily the use of Westminster Hall for a particular purpose would be authorised by agreement of the three keyholders.

It's clear from your petition that you would like the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker not to have a role in this process. However, we're not sure how you would like these decisions to be taken - whether by the Lord Great Chamberlain alone, or by some other body or person.

You could start a new petition explaining clearly what you would like the Government or Parliament to do.

Timeline

7 Feb 2017	Petition opened for signatures
16 Feb 2017	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 15

Status Rejected

Rejected 16 Feb 2017

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