The Conservative party will attempt to oust House of Commons Speaker John Bercow in the next UK general election, a British cabinet minister has said.
Mr Bercow is a former Tory who - as is tradition - renounced party affiliation when he was elected to the impartial speaker role in 2009.
Speakers who run for re-election do so without party affiliation, but are typically unopposed by the major political parties.
However, Mr Bercow has infuriated Conservative Brexiteers in recent years after the government suffered number of major parliamentary defeats over Brexit.
Last Tuesday MPs wrestled control of the House of Commons schedule from Boris Johnson's government in order to pass legislation to block a no-deal Brexit.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, UK Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom - who was government leader of the House of Commons under Theresa May - accused Mr Bercow of 'abusing the rules'.
She claimed: "In allowing MPs to use Standing Order No 24 – an important procedure whereby MPs can debate urgent issues – as a route to taking over the parliamentary timetable and giving power to the opposition, the Speaker hasn’t just bent the rules, he has broken them.
"So it is right that the Conservatives will recognise this fact at the next general election by standing our candidate against him in Buckingham."
Ms Leadsom added: "It acts in complete disregard to the will of the people – not just on Brexit, but on whom they have chosen to govern them."
Election
A general election is expected in the UK in the coming months.
However, opposition parties will block Boris Johnson's latest effort to call one tomorrow - saying they'll only allow an election once a no-deal Brexit has been guaranteed.
Mr Bercow - who has been comfortably re-elected in recent votes - has become widely known for his loud voice and cutting interjections in the often rowdy House of Commons.
Last month he sharply criticised Boris Johnson's government for the decision to suspend parliament for more than a month in the weeks leading up to the 31st October Brexit deadline.
He claimed the move represented a "constitutional outrage", adding: “However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop parliament debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the country.”
