With crushing inevitability, John Bercow has told Sky News he is going to break his promise to stand down as Speaker after nine years and instead go on until 2022. Bercow says laughably that “we’re in a very different situation” and that because Theresa May changed her mind about calling an election he is within his rights to change his too. A pitiful excuse even by his standards.

Guido has dug out Bercow’s manifesto circulated to MPs when he ran for Speaker in 2009. Bercow told colleagues that “as a matter of principle” he believed Speakers should not outstay their welcome, and promised that

“if you do me the honour of electing me, I will serve for no longer than two full Parliaments and, in any event, for no more than 9 years in total. I say this because any Speaker should be able to make a mark in that time”

He has gone back on his word, and it is going down very badly among MPs…

Scourge of Bercow James Duddridge tells Guido:

“He said he would only serve until the 22nd June 2018. He has broken his manifesto promise to to go at this date. He is a disgrace and should not be reelected as Speaker if he is returned as an MP. He is a self-serving parasite of the worst order.”

Karl McCartney adds:

“He does not command loyalty across the House, except from those who owe him, and has used up any goodwill any of my colleagues may have had for him in the past.”

And Andrew Bridgen tells Guido:

“Speaker Bercow has already ripped up every page of the rulebook on impartiality, and now he has ripped up his manifesto pledges.”

Another Tory candidate says:

“It is about time Parliament had a truly independent Speaker rather than anymore of this third rate third Labour supporting Speaker. He has brought the exalted position into disrepute with his personal life and opinionated pontifications and his fellow MPs do not like being taken for granted, or for fools.”

Four extra years of Bercow coming up if he wins reelection after June 8. No one will be more annoyed than Chris Bryant and Lindsay Hoyle…