Sally Bercow in legal hot water AGAIN after she breaches court order by naming schoolgirl in a child abduction case
Monday 19 November 2012
Related articles
Order! Order!! Sally Bercow, that inveterate user of Twitter, might be receiving advice from her husband John Bercow, the House of Commons speaker, to curb her incessant use of the social media platform after yet another tweeted indiscretion landed her in legal hot water.
Already facing a defamation action from former Tory party treasurer Lord McAlpine for linking him to a paedophile scandal, Ms Bercow has breached a court order by naming a schoolgirl in a child abduction case.
The girl’s identity is protected by a Section 39 Order under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, but Ms Bercow disclosed the name in a tweet on Sunday evening asking her 59,000 followers for updates on the case. “Forgive random question – just discussing with a friend…,” she explained, after the latest example of her Twitterrhoea.
Ms Bercow, 42, initially failed to respond to warnings from journalist followers that she should withdraw the post. Breaching the order carries a £5,000 fine. She eventually removed the tweet.
She has already been sent a “letter before action” from Lord McAlpine, who accuses her of defamation over a tweet that linked him to an unnamed Tory featured in a flawed Newsnight film about child abuse. “Why is Lord McAlpine trending *innocent face*” she tweeted. Despite the legal letter she returned to Twitter to accuse the peer’s lawyers of being “ambulance chasers” and “big bullies”.
If Mr Bercow does ask his wife to stop embarrassing him, she is unlikely to take too much notice. The fiercely independent partner of the former Tory Shadow International Development Secretary might be a former social secretary of the Oxford University Conservative Association but she now defiantly describes herself on her favourite website as a “Labour supporter”.
While he was trying to establish his credibility in the Speaker’s Chair, she was last year signing up to take part in Celebrity Big Brother 8 on Channel 5, where she was the first contestant to be evicted. Mr Bercow had opposed his wife’s participation in the show, saying he found Big Brother “completely dreadful”.
It launched a reality television career that would see her team up with fellow Big Brother contestant Paddy Doherty to star in Paddy and Sally’s Excellent Gypsy Adventure, also on Channel 5, earlier this year.
Big Brother provided an opportunity for housemates to mimic another Bercow publicity coup: her bed sheet moment. Early last year she appeared dressed only in a sheet, with the House of Commons in the background, for a photo shoot for the London Evening Standard. The Speaker was said to have been so angry at the stunt that he “read the Riot Act”, while she took to Twitter (of course) to predict that “Mr B is going to go potty”.
In truth, he cannot have been too surprised at her actions. Ms Bercow is a complicated woman who campaigned for her husband at the 1997 elections while simultaneously undergoing a conversion to New Labour and abandoning the Tories, despite having twice previously addressed Conservative conferences.
She is said to be on a Labour party list of approved parliamentary candidates, which might have meant that she was in line to become the first serving MP to humiliate themselves on Big Brother or be covered in maggots in a celebrity jungle. If only George Galloway and Nadine Dorries hadn’t beaten her to it.
-
Feat of engineering: Incredible photographs show construction beneath New York's Second Avenue
-
Charles Saatchi accepts police caution for assault after trying to dismiss Nigella Lawson row as 'playful tiff'
-
Brazil kicks off: World Cup excess draws hundreds of thousands to street protests
-
Google, BT and Yahoo! agree plan to tackle child porn
-
Exposed: Edward Erin, the doctor whose faked asthma drug test results proved fatal
- 1 Breaking the Silence: In the reality of occupation, there are no Palestinian civilians – only potential terrorists
- 2 Special Report: US troops are stationed in Japan to protect the nation. But to sex workers in Okinawa, they bring fear, not security
- 3 Should we intervene? Our response to the Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson assault is shocking too
- 4 Exclusive: Cristiano Ronaldo advised to stay at Real Madrid for further 18 months before making possible switch to Manchester United
- 5 Iran to send 4,000 troops to aid President Assad forces in Syria
Get your summer started with British Military Fitness
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
How will you make today delicious?
Tell us how you plan to make today delicious and you could win a £50 M&S gift card.
Learn a new language
Add another string to your bow with Rosetta Stone, whether it's Spanish, Italian or Mandarin...
Making reading fun for kids
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Introducing the 'Get Reading' campaign
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Independent Dating
iJobs General
Senior Electrical Engineering Consultant – Renewable Energy Grid Connections.
Negotiable Depending on Experience: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green R...
BREEAM Consultant
£25000 - £30000 Per Annum: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green Recruitmen...
Design Engineer - ProE, Hand Calcs
Negotiable: Progressive Recruitment: Dear Sumadhab, A growing engineering comp...
Year 6 Teacher / Year Group Leader
Negotiable: Randstad Education Ilford: We are currently recruiting for a Year ...
Day In a Page
Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention
Female aristocrats battle to inherit the title
In pictures: JFK's visit to Berlin in 1963
Mark Hix gets creative with English peas
Seasoned to taste: Food institutions






