Parliament ended with the most tremendous , tetchy – tearful ! – squabble : should Speaker Bercow 's future be decided by secret ballot ? It became a day of wondrous hysteria , tantrums , moist hankies and ( for the time being ) survival for this stinker of a Speaker . Labour MPs and a handful of men on the Weirdo Right insisted that a secret ballot would be 'undemocratic ' . Moderate Tories and Lib Dems argued that MPs openly voting against Bercow feared the Squeaker 's tyrannical vengeance crashing about their ears . Scroll down for video . Speaker John Bercow ( pictured ) fought back tears as a motion to vote on a secret ballot to unseat him was defeated 228 to 202 . Good grief , you mean an allegedly impartial Speaker might hold grudges ? You mean this shouty , sarcastic , balled fist of a Speaker might nurse resentments and use his privileged position to queer the Commons ? Labour and its Cameron-haters on the Right – unhappy creatures such as Edward Leigh and David Davis – narrowly won the day . By the end , Bercow was blubbing with relief , while his friend ( and possible successor ) Charles Walker was wailing that some beastly , beastly men had not been entirely clear with him beforehand . Boo hoo ! Mr Walker is so widely seen as a Bercow stooge , it may not be surprising that he was kept out of the loop by Bercow 's enemies . His chin-crumpling speech , in which he said he preferred to be thought an honest fool than a clever schemer , was greeted with frenetic clapping from Labour . It was soon being compared to the Gettysburg Address , Churchill 's 'fight them on the beaches ' speech , the Sermon on the Mount . Labour MPs and Bercow 's Tory nutjobs waved their Order Papers and accused Commons Leader William Hague of being a Soviet Union dictator . Bercowites leapt in the air , brandishing their pleasure and accusing the secret ballot crowd of being 'grubby ' and 'partisan ' . Bercow supporters had been taken by surprise on Wednesday evening by a cunning ploy from Westminster 's very own Baldrick , Government Chief Whip Michael Gove . A secret ballot may have looked harmless . We all have one in the coming general election . 'Labour MPs and Bercow 's Tory nutjobs waved their Order Papers and accused Commons Leader William Hague ( pictured ) of being a Soviet Union dictator ' But Labour – which regards Bercow as a client Speaker – saw that a secret ballot would give its own MPs the cloak of anonymity . That would make them impossible to Whip . Labour MPs were therefore hauled back from the furthest ends of the kingdom to save the Speaker for socialism . At this point you will say 'well , naturally Bercow must have let one of his deputies chair the debate , as it would have been improper for him to supervise it himself ' . You do not know this man . Of course he chaired it ! And he did so in the most hilariously biased fashion , calling a succession of his mates . Labour delayed the debate , thus allowing its troops to get back from their constituencies . How did they do this ? By asking the Speaker to give them Urgent Questions . Three , to be precise . He granted them all . Each of these devices use up precious time and made Bercow 's survival more likely . A Tory moderate , Greg Barker ( Bexhill & Battle ) , muttered 'oh , rubbish ' while one of Mr Bercow 's supporters was speaking . A smiling Bercow snarled at Mr Barker that 'it is better to remain silent and look a fool than to remove any doubt ' . This was an authentic Bercow moment – that combination of sneer and fake amusement catching his character perfectly . Sir Gerald Kaufman ( Lab , Gorton ) , in a Prince of Wales-check suit that will have made TV screens wobble , made a pro-Bercow speech of such acidity , it must have corroded the pinky gums at the bottom of his ancient , yellowing fangs . Sir Gerald is likely to be the next Father of the House and will therefore be in charge of the House when it has a chance to approve Bercow 's continued existence in the Chair . How convenient ! Was yesterday 's plot driven by partisanship ? It was certainly driven by hatred of Bercow , who was elected in 2009 amid sly partisanship by Labour . The once great Chair of our elected Legislature has never looked so tawdry . The Tories should run a candidate against Bercow in Buckingham . Jeremy Clarkson ?
MPs voted on 'secret ballot ' to unseat John Bercow as Commons speaker . Labour MPs and some on right said such a vote would be undemocratic . Comment: The announcement was met with rapturous applause by labour MPs .