John Simon Bercow PC is a veteran English politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom for a decade and as Member of Parliament for Buckingham for over two decades. A Conservative Party member, Bercow initially served as councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth. He later became MP for Buckingham during the 1997 general elections and was elevated to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001 where he served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Iain Duncan Smith and as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development under Michael Howard. Bercow won the 2009 election of the Speaker of the House of Commons and became the first Jewish Speaker. He also emerged as first MP after Selwyn Lloyd who got elected as Speaker without previously serving as a Deputy Speaker. Bercow was re-elected as Speaker in 2010, 2015 and 2017 and with this he became the first Speaker since the Second World War who was elected four times and who served alongside four Prime Ministers. He stepped down as Speaker and MP on November 4, 2019. His present engagements include serving as Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, Chancellor of the University of Essex and part-time professor of politics at Royal Holloway, University of London.