John Bercow’s 1995 CV: tennis coach with a record for sticking it to the lefties

Aspiring politician John Bercow’s CV boasted of sticking it to the left-wing town hall councillors as he bid for his first job in Parliament, previously classified documents show.

Mr Bercow was a 32-year-old upstart when he was requested by the Chancellor Ken Clarke to become special adviser to the chief secretary to the treasury in 1995, having served on Lambeth Borough Council for four years.

But Mr Bercow, whose time as Commons Speaker at the opposite end of his career was peppered with allegations of being pro-liberal, in fact billed himself as a tough-nosed Tory when looking to make his way in Westminster.

His CV, a copy of which was among a tranche of documents released by the National Archives at Kew, told how he: “Exposed waste and corruption by the extreme left in control of the council” at Lambeth.

The document added: “Fought against left-wing politicies, double standards and dirty tricks campaigns by Liberal Democrat councillors.”

Mr Bercow said he had increased membership of the Essex University Conservative Association “from 60 to over 200” during his time studying there in the mid-to-late 1980s, and identified “squash, reading, swimming and cinema” – as well as being a qualified tennis coach – among his list of interests.

Mr Bercow was elected Tory MP for Buckingham in 1997 and began a decade as Speaker in 2009.

He stood down at the last general election.