Nigel Farage Has A Fierce Row With Caller Over John Bercow's Neutrality

9 October 2019, 20:39 | Updated: 9 October 2019, 20:47

Watch Nigel Farage's fierce row with a caller over whether Speaker John Bercow was right to discuss Brexit with the president of the European Parliament.

Nigel Farage said that Speaker John Bercow should be neutral and is not, after the EU Parliament president David Sassoli revealed he met with the Speaker for Brexit talks.

The caller Adam challenged Nigel's view: "What was said in the meeting about the referendum or the general election, that was already in the public domain. That's not new information.

"Furthermore, Parliament can vote against all these things if it wishes. John Bercow hasn't taken away the right of Parliament to vote these things down."

Nigel challenged: "Would you be happy for John Bercow now to go and visit President Trump in the White House and represent our country if there's a minority in government?"

"We have a minority government, we need somebody to lead Parliament," replied Adam.

"So is Bercow our leader on the world stage?" asked Nigel.

Adam said: "Bercow is representing the interests of Parliament and the Parliament can vote as it wishes to do so."

Nigel argued: "He is a neutral servant of Parliament, not a political representative, that is the point." He continued that Bercow shouldn't be representing the Parliament in a "political way."

Adam asked: "How is he acting in a political way if Parliament can vote down anything that gets put forward?"

Nigel said: "Because he's meeting and having political discussions with leaders, in this case, with a leader of another institution. That is not historically a role the Speaker has ever played.

"And I would argue, Adam, strongly that he's shown throughout this process that he is not neutral on this great issue."

Adam said: "He is giving the Parliament the full range of options available to it when the time comes to choose on these matters and again, if we had a majority government, it would never have even got to this point."

"Do you think Speaker Bercow is neutral on the European Union?" asked Nigel.

The caller said he didn't think it matters.

"Well I do!" exclaimed Nigel, "This gets to the heart of it. What do we want from our Speaker? Do we want a neutral umpire in the chair or are we happy to see these roles increasingly politicised?"

Watch the heated debate above.