Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle urges PM to give John Bercow a peerage

Boris Johnson should honour tradition and make ex-House of Commons Speaker John Bercow a lord, his successor has suggested. 

Sir Lindsay Hoyle said the prime minister should maintain the more than 200-year-old convention.

Mr Bercow has so far been denied ennoblement after fury from the government over his perceived Brexit "bias".

Sir Lindsay, who took over the job in November, backed his old boss being elevated to the Lords.

"My view is every speaker has been offered a peerage, so custom and practice says that's what's always happened - I wouldn't break that custom and practice," he told Pienaar's Politics on BBC Radio 5.

"My view is custom and practice, always been offered, doesn't have to be taken.

"I think, personally, if that's what's always happens we should continue with that.

"My view is that personally it should be offered to him.

"He has served the house, he served for 10 years, he did some great things - and that's the difference."

Usually the first act of any new parliament after a Commons Speaker has resigned is to approve a bid by Downing street to immediately put them in the Lords.

But Mr Bercow has not been granted the honour, following nearly a year of stories about government sources threatening not to continue the convention.

Last month, Commons leader Jacob-Rees Mogg suggested he thought the prime minister should give Mr Bercow a peerage.

He urged Mr Johnson to "rise above any here-today-gone-tomorrow disagreements with the one-time occupant of the role" and called himself "a great believer of conventions".