Parliament’s most senior official has today announced that he is retiring in the wake of the bullying and sex harassment scandals which have rocked Westminster.
Sir David Natzler, the clerk of the House of Commons, will step down in March next year after 43 years in Parliament.
Commons Speaker John Bercow made the announcement in the Chamber today and stressed that Sir David’s departure is a ‘long planned retirement’.
It comes just weeks after Dame Laura Cox published her damning report exposing the bullying and sexual harassment inflicted in Parliament over many years.
Dame Laura said a string of male MPs past and present have allegedly lunged, groped and propositioned women.
And she lashed the ‘institutional failings’ in the Commons and warned a culture of ‘deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence’ exists in Parliament.
Sir David Natzler, the clerk of the House of Commons, (pictured in Parliament today) will step down in March next year after 43 years in Parliament
Commons Speaker John Bercow (pictured in Parliament today) made the announcement in the Chamber today and stressed that Sir David’s departure is a ‘long planned retirement’
Tory MP James Duddridge said: ‘Bercow must follow Natzler in resigning. He is part of the problem and not part of a future that deals with bullying in the way any other business would.
‘The fact Bercow does not get it demonstrates the problem. Speakers House needs to be renamed Ivory Towers. He is remote and isolated from reality.’
In a retirement letter read out in the Commons this afternoon, Sir David admitted it has been a ‘turbulent’ time in Parliament.
And he addressed the sexual harassment scandal head on – calling for those in Parliament to treat each other with more respect in order to tackle it.
In his letter, read out by Mr Bercow, he said: ‘It has been a turbulent four years cover three governments, two general elections and two referendums.
‘The murders of Jo Cox MP and PC (Keith) Palmer, threats to our physical and cyber security and the ebb an flow of launching restoration and renewal….
‘And it hardly needs saying that there may be more turbulence over the next few weeks and months.
‘The last 12 months have also seen of course the surfacing in various ways of the complex issue of bullying and harassment and sexual misconduct in the parliamentary community.
‘I am confident that we can deal with it if we all acknowledge past failings, as I readily do, and move beyond concerns about process to reach a place where, quite simply, everybody in the community treats everybody else with respect and dignity.
‘And where they do not, they are called out and, if necessary, sanction.
‘It has been a privilege, if not always a positive pleasure to do this job, and the other 14 jobs I have done here.’
He paid tribute to the support and friendship of MPs and the staff in the Commons.
Politicians flouted parliamentary convention to applaud the outgoing clerk after his letter was read out in the Chamber.
But his departure will spark questions over if he has been forced out, and if so why Mr Bercow is not going.
The Speaker has been hit by a string of bullying allegations by staff who have worked with him over the years – but he strongly denies them.
Mr Bercow paid tribute to Sir David, hailing his ‘outstanding service’.
He said: ‘Sir David held a number of senior appointments within the House of Commons’ Chamber and Committee Services before being appointed Clerk of the House in 2015 – acting as principal constitutional adviser to the House of Commons.
‘Sir David has vast experience and expertise and has served this House without interruption since 1975 – and his support and advice for me, for my deputies, for Members, and the government, on Parliamentary procedure and business, has been unswerving.
‘I have known this day was coming for over a year – so it is with some sadness I announced its arrival today.
‘For me personally, Sir David has been a loyal colleague and friend – and I know his calm and good-humoured presence will be sorely missed by us all.’