British politics' soap opera script

John Bercow has a Damascene moment; Boris Johnson has an issue with Teflon

Former House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, a long-time member of the Conservative Party, has defected to Labour. His biographer, Sebastian Whale described it as a “remarkable transformation from eurosceptic, anti-immigration, Thatcher-loving Tory to the Remain-voting, left-leaning, Bernie Sanders-supporting liberal currently touring the TV studios”.

There’s a bit more to it as well, notably the timing. Mr Bercow has chosen to go public with his choice of new party just days after the Conservatives suffered an unpleasant by-election defeat. The Chesham and Amersham constituency always voted Conservative — until it didn’t. Labour didn’t win it from the Conservatives — it was the Liberal Democrats who overturned the 16,000 vote majority. And Labour didn’t even feature in the top three vote-getters — the Greens were in third place. But Labour is the main opposition party. And the perception of invulnerability that Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has enjoyed since the December 2019 gen…