THE House of Commons Speaker has hit back at critics who say he has changed Parliament rules to suit his agenda.

MP John Bercow, who is the Chancellor of Essex University, has come under fire after approving a vote on the Prime Minister’s plan B for Brexit on Wednesday.

Mr Bercow agreed to allow a vote on an amendment to a Government motion put forward by Dominic Grieve.

Ministers narrowly lost the vote, meaning a revised plan for Brexit will have to be tabled within three days, rather than three weeks, should Theresa May’s original deal be rejected next week.

Mr Bercow, who is leaving the role this summer, has faced calls to hand in his resignation early.

“There was nothing arbitrary about the conduct of the chair yesterday,” he said.

“This Speaker is well aware of how to go about the business of chairing the proceedings of the House because he’s been doing so for nine-and-a-half years.

“I hope colleagues will understand when I say that I require no lessons or lectures from others about how to discharge my obligations to Parliament and in support of the rights of backbench Parliamentarians.”

Mr Bercow added: “I have been doing it, I’m continuing to do it and I will go on doing it, no matter how much abuse I get from whatever quarter.

“It’s water off a duck’s back as far as I am concerned.”

Mr Bercow graduated from the university with a first class degree in Politics in 1985 and became its chancellor in 2017.

He has been accused of being bias against Brexit because of his latest decision but said he allowed the amendment to be voted on “not because I am setting myself up against the Government, but because I am championing the rights of the House of Commons”.

He added: “I’m trying to do the right thing and make the right judgments.

“That is what I have tried to do and what I will go on doing.”