Byline: Michael Seamark and Jason Groves
SHE'S hardly known as a shrinking violet, but this time even Sally Bercow may have overstepped the mark.
Naked, save for a sheet to protect her 'modesty', the Speaker's wife gazes provocatively into the camera for an extraordinary photo taken in the shadow of Parliament.
Worse, in a racy magazine article, she then details the Bercow bedroom secrets, explaining how husband John's lavish grace-and-favour apartment in the Palace of Westminster has spiced up life between the sheets.
'I never realised how sexy I would find living under Big Ben with the bells chiming,' Labour-supporting Mrs Bercow gushes.
Then, making the grand and rather unlikely claim that she is seen as the 'Carla Bruni of British politics', the 41-year-old extols the virtues of politics as an aphrodisiac.
Both she and her diminutive husband, she says, have been 'hit' on by the opposite sex after the Tory MP's elevation to one of the great offices of state.
The interview and photograph - taken in a hotel room opposite the Palace of Westminster - appear in a 'Sex in the City' feature in the London Evening Standard's ES magazine today.
'With a little help from our most libidinous friends,' says the magazine, it has uncovered the capital's 75 sexiest places.
Coming in at number 57 - behind Parliament Hill 'if you like it outdoors' - under the section 'for power lovers' is 'Sally Bercow on the Houses of Parliament - Westminster's Carla Bruni'. Last night Mrs Bercow, who stood as a Labour council candidate at the last election and has angered many MPs with her repeated outbursts, was conducting a desperate rearguard action as the impact of the astonishing article swept around a stunned Westminster, prompting renewed calls for her husband to be ditched as Speaker.
Using Twitter, her preferred weapon of choice, the normally publicity-hungry mother of three claimed she had been duped.
'It was meant to be a Valentine thing, bit of fun,' she posted, describing herself as a 'bloody idiot' and adding: 'Dies of embarrassment. Oh b*****. I've been done up like a kipper. Mr B is going to go potty, naive Sally.' Yet minutes later Mrs Bercow added: 'Tis a great pic though', before tweeting: 'Enough storminabedsheet nonsense now.' She is unlikely to have done her 47-year-old husband any favours.
Ministers are already plotting to remove him as Speaker because of anger over his 'partisan' conduct, and there is growing concern about his wife's behaviour, with one member of the Government describing her as 'totally out of control'.
Many Conservatives are furious at her almost daily attacks on Government policy and individual ministers - she once called Chancellor George Osborne 'mental', described David Cameron as a 'merchant of spin' and last year criticised William Hague for the way in which he dealt with internet rumours about his private life. One senior Tory said her interview and photo-shoot 'brought Parliament into disrepute' and was likely to hasten efforts to remove her husband as Speaker. He added: 'How much worse can it get? She is just deranged and vulgar and embarrassing.
It is humiliating for British public life.
'It is so vulgar and tacky - we just cannot put up with them any more. We have got to get rid of them.' Another Tory said: 'Of course she is entitled to her own views, but she is using the office of the Speaker to promote her own career and that is just not on. This latest thing is just gob-smackingly awful. We can't go on like this.' Downing Street openly ridiculed the Bercows. Asked what the Prime Minister thought about Mrs Bercow's contention that the Speaker had become a sex symbol, Mr Cameron's official spokesman replied: 'Clearly, the Prime Minister and Mrs Bercow have slightly different relationships with the Speaker.' m.seamark@dailymail.co.uk
CAPTION(S):
Over-exposed: Sally Bercow poses for the magazine
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