FORMER Speaker of the Commons John Bercow has turned his talent for bellowing at Parliament into pricey public speaking gigs.
Mr Bercow has signed up to do talks for tens of thousands of pounds for speaking gigs, and with an all-star VIP speaker agency.
John Bercow appears as a special guest on Italian talk show
Appearing on the British broadcast rounds doesn’t seem to be enough for the former speaker who has joined JLA celebrity speaking agency.
Mr Bercow has been on the dinner-ciruit tour since he stepped from the Speaker’s Chair at the end of October – despite previously saying it would “leave a bad taste” if he were to profit from his old job.
The agency provides guest speakers to private events, with a minimum of 25,000 for their top-tier speakers such as former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard and Australian cricketer Shane Warne.
Mr Bercow joins other political big wigs doing the speaking rounds, including Lord William Hague, former Foreign Secretary, who is in the top AA tier, and former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, also in the AA band.
Former Tony Blair spin doctor Alastair Campbell is in the A band, fetching between 10,000 to 25,000 for a performance.
JLA said Mr Bercow “shares his insights on the future of our politics and the lessons learned about driving change”.
“He is also a seasoned raconteur with countless stories from the corridors of power and an eye out for anyone ‘chuntering from a sedentary position,’” JLA said of the former speaker.
Mr Bercow told Sky News on election night that he had an “innate shyness”.
Mr Bercow speaks under the title “Right Honourable John Bercow”, one he is allowed to use as a lifelong Privy Council member.
News of Mr Bercow’s calendar full of highly-paid talks comes days after raking in 60,000 for a one-night stint on the Sky News general election panel.
Mr Bercow then appeared on Italian talk show, where he continued to do his bellow rendition of “order” for the audience.
Perhaps careful of being labelled a one-trick pony, Mr Bercow also turned his hollering to tennis, yelling “Federer! Federer!” in his old Speaker manner on a section of the programme about tennis.
He then brandished a screenshot of Roger Federer on his phone.
JLA has not disclosed how much Mr Bercow’s talks cost, leaving him as one of the few uncategorised speakers, along with former Labour Chancellor Ed Balls.
Since new Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle took over, Mr Bercow has appeared across international television networks, including CNN, and has had a jam-packed diary of speaking arrangements.
In October alone, Mr Bercow received more than 5,000 for speeches in Zurich, Amsterdam, Boston and New York. Once again, Mr Bercow played to his fans, yelling “Order! Order!” to start the breakfast.
On November 15, Mr Bercow spoke at a business breakfast at private golf club K Club for a talk with the Kildare Chamber of Commerce.
On November 29, he was at speaking at the Park Lane in London, at a letting agency conference called The Negotiator. The conference charges from 295 for a single ticket to 3,245 for a table of twelve.
On December 4, he was keynote speaker at the Financial Times banking summit at the Intercontinental on Park Lane
He has made at least two other speeches since then, and will attend the Alpine Symposium in Switzerland in mid-January.
He will be back in London two days later at an even for The Clement James Centre charity.
