Speaker John Bercow accused of issuing ‘Trump-like’ order after ‘barring’ wigs in the House of Commons

COMMONS Speaker John Bercow was accused of issuing a “Trump-like” order yesterday after announcing wigs will no longer be worn in the Commons in a bid to ditch its “stuffy” image.

Sparking a furious Tory protest, the Speaker declared clerks in the chamber - the last wearers of wigs - will also stop wearing court dress but will still wear gowns.

Mr Bercow said the changes were prompted after a request by Clerk of the House David Natzler -backed by the House of Commons Commission.

It’s thought the clerks – experts in parliamentary law – find them too itchy to wear.

He told MPs the changes would be implemented shortly after the next Parliamentary recess, which ends on February 20.

He said: “Colleagues will be pleased to learn this change will in the longer term save money.

“It will I believe be welcomed by those clerks who serve or look forward to serving at the table, and it will moreover in my view, which I recognise may not be universally shared, convey to the public a marginally less stuffy and forbidding image of this chamber at work.”

But the declaration prompted fury from Tory MPs who could be heard voicing their disapproval at the changes to a centuries-old Commons tradition.

Sir Gerald Howarth accused Mr Bercow of decreeing a “Trump like executive order” insisting the traditional dress “adds to the dignity of the House”.

He said none of his constituents had ever complained about it.

Fellow Tory MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, urged the Speaker to rethink the decision saying the whole House should be able to consider the issue.

Mr Bercow said MPs were welcome to debate the issue.

But he denied accusations the idea was his brainchild.

He added: “It wasn’t an executive order, it was a request from the clerks themselves to which I and the members of the House of Commons commission agreed.

“People are entitled to their views about it, but the idea that this was something that I dreamt up and sought to impose against the will of the clerks is 100% wrong.”

It was tradition for the Speaker to wear a wig until 1992 when Betty Boothroyd – the first female Speaker decided not to wear one.