Seven of his predecessors were beheaded centuries ago, but the Speaker of Britain’s parliament faces a very modern form of torture — his wife has become a contestant on the reality television show Big Brother. John Bercow, who keeps members of parliament (MPs) in line with cries of “Order, Order”, is not amused but his wife Sally has ignored his pleas and joined a cast of minor celebrities in the Big Brother house. “He’s not exactly pleased,” Sally Bercow said of her husband’s views as she moved into the house on Thursday night. John Bercow has remained on holiday abroad. Speaker Bercow has made plenty of enemies within the ranks of his own Conservative Party for his acid asides to keep them in line. His detractors say his wife’s appearance before the cameras on the terrestrial TV Channel 5 show demeans his office. “John Bercow said he wanted to restore respect and dignity to parliament in his manifesto for Speaker. I am not sure how Sally Bercow going on one of the country’s tackiest shows helps,” said Rob Wilson, a Conservative MP and Bercow critic. The Speaker was left squirming earlier this year after Sally posed wearing only a sheet for a magazine article in which she bragged of how his elevation to the role, complete with apartment on the parliamentary estate, had spiced up their life. MPs elected Bercow as Speaker of the House of Commons two years ago when parliament’s reputation had been dragged through the dirt by disclosures that MPs had claimed dodgy expenses. His predecessor Michael Martin, a Glaswegian Labour MP, was the first Speaker to be ousted in more than 300 years, punished for what was seen as a tardy reaction to the expenses scandal. Refreshed by a new intake of MPs after last year’s election, the authority of parliament has been restored since that nadir.The most telling example was last month when parliament called on News Corporation to ditch its $12bn bid for BSkyB because of the phone-hacking scandal. “Parliament’s been bolstered in the last 14 months. Significantly, we have rediscovered our collective strength,” Bercow told the Guardian last month.Bercow, who entered parliament in 1997, has sparred with David Cameron during some rowdy sessions of Prime Minister’s Questions in the house. Although a Conservative, Bercow is viewed with mistrust by some in his own party suspicious of his political journey from its far-right in the 1980s to the centre ground. Sally’s open support for the Labour Party has fuelled that resentment and some Conservative MPs have accused Bercow of bias, with newspaper reports of plots to oust him. Public relations executive Max Clifford said Sally Bercow planned to donate £100,000 to the Ambitious about Autism charity from appearing on the programme. The couple’s seven-year-old son Oliver, eldest of their thee children, has autism. “She did it because she is not the Speaker, she is her own person,” Clifford, who is representing Sally Bercow, said. “She accepts it will upset a lot of people, but she is happy to face up to the consequences.” Reuters