| Sally Bercow | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 November 1969 |
| Occupation | Political activist, media personality and writer |
Sally Bercow (née Illman; born 22 November 1969) is the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow. She was a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother and was evicted from the house on 26 August 2011.
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Sally Illman attended the public school Marlborough College, as a contemporary of the British Prime Minister's wife, Samantha Cameron, and went on to attend Keble College, Oxford, dropping out after two years.[1] The fact that Bercow did not finish her studies at Oxford became a minor controversy in 2009 when it was revealed that she had been sacked from a City public relations firm for trying to conceal this on her CV.[1]
She was the social secretary of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) while at the University. It was subsequently reported in the Daily Mail that during her time with OUCA, she was involved in a social event for which OUCA booked strippers.[2] She met her future husband at a national Conservative Students Conference. [1]
In a 2009 interview Bercow spoke about alcoholism and one-night stands in her twenties.[3] She has three children; her eldest son is autistic.[4] She stated that she would not send her children to a grammar school because of her opposition to selection at the age of eleven.
Sally Bercow addressed two Conservative Party Conferences[5] and her husband became a Conservative MP at the 1997 General Election. However, she changed her political allegiance during the founding days of New Labour and campaigned actively for Tony Blair whilst campaigning for her husband (then partner) win his seat. In 2010, she stood as a Labour candidate for the St James ward of Westminster City Council, receiving 868 votes, 1,000 fewer than her nearest successful rival despite extremely hard campaigning.[6] She is on the approved list of candidates for members of Parliament for the Labour Party and actively campaigned for the election of Ed Balls as leader of the Labour Party. The Daily Telegraph has suggested that Bercow is politicising her husband's neutral role.[7] John Bercow has rejected this criticism stating "the obligation of impartiality does not apply to my wife who is not my chattel".[8] She has also appeared on Question Time notably attacking Francis Maude over his government's health reforms.
On 11 November 2010 Bercow appeared as a panelist on the BBC's comedy-news show Have I Got News For You.
On 3 February 2011 she attracted criticism for appearing to capitalise on her husband's position, when a photograph of her wearing only a bed sheet, with the House of Commons in the background, appeared in the London Evening Standard free newspaper.[9] In the article, she was quoted as saying "becoming Speaker has turned my husband into a sex symbol",[10] although she later claimed, in a radio interview; "It was just meant to be a bit of fun, but obviously it has completely backfired on me and I look a complete idiot."[11] The author of a biography of John and Sally Bercow, Bobby Friedman, has claimed that John "read the riot act" to her after the bed sheet photo was published.
On 18 August 2011 Bercow entered the Big Brother House as a housemate on Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother 2011.[12] She claimed to have chosen this as her way of 'upsetting the establishment'.[13] On 26 August she became the first person to be evicted.[14]
Bercow is currently considering I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here as well as the possibility of being a TV presenter, but still wants to become a Labour MP.[15]
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