>> order. i would like order in due time and keep the honorable members in mind. colleagues, i would like to make a personal statement to the house. 2017 election, i promised my wife and children that it will be my last. this is a pledge that i intend to keep.

if the house breaks tonight for an early general election, my tenure as speaker and m.p. will end when this parliament ends. , ithe house does not so vote have included that the least sruptive and most democratic course of action would be for me to stand down at the close of usiness on thursday, october 1. [applause]

mr. bercow: least disruptive because of that date will fall shortly after the votes on the queen's speech expected on 21st and 22nd october. the week or so after that may be quite lively and it would be best to have an experienced gure in the chair for that short period. most democratic because it will held when ballot is all the members have some .nowledge of the candidates

this is far preferable to a contest and beginning of apparel will not new m.p.'s be similarly informed and may ind themselves vulnerable to .ndue institutional influence [cheers] mr. bercow: we would not want anyone to be whipped senseless, would we? [laughter] mr. bercow: throughout my time sought to i have increase the relative authority

which i egislature for will make absolutely no apology any anyone anywhere at time. , i mploy a dangerous phrase ave sought to be the backstop. [laughter] mr. bercow: i could not do so the soup e support of pesh team in speaker's house. the wider house stopped. my buckingham constituents and

and our three fe hildren, oliver, freddie and jemimah. [applause] mr. bercow: from the bottom of my heart, i thank them all profusely. i could also not have served without the repeated support of his house and its members past and present.

this is a wonderful place, formed overwhelmingly by people o are motivated by their nation of international interests, by their perception of the public good and by their not as delegates, but as representatives to do what happens they believe is right for our country. we degrade this parliament at our peril. i served as a member of arliament for 22 years and for

last 10, as speaker. put it been -- let me explicitly -- the greatest privilege of my professional life, for which i will be eternally grateful. i wish my successor in the chair in ery best fortune standing up for the rights of all of our right honorable for parliament institutionally as the speaker of the house of commons. thank you. cheers and applause]

is mr. bercow: you are really a very bunch of again rouse people. i love this place. you love this place. and we look forward to a future with interests and anticipation

and enthusiasm. >> i want to put on record my thanks to you as being a soup pesh speaker of this house. my thanks to you as a colleague in parliament and think mampings to your family in the way they have supported you through difficult times when many of the media has been unfair rment. and your two sons are good at football. i was impressed and i know you support the same team as me. mr. speaker, in your role as speaker, you have totally changed the way in which the job has been done. you reached out to people. you visited schools and factories and offices and talked to people about the role of parliament and democracy. and that has been forgotten and spending the morning with me talking to a group of students

all of whom have learning difficulties and discussed with them the roles of democracy and the role of parliament and you have taken on the word, that you are there to be guided and act on behalf of our parliament. this parliament is stronger for you as speaker and our democracy is stronger for your being the speaker. and whatever you do when you timely step down from parliament, you do so with the thanks from a very large number of people and one that has made the role of speaker in the house, more powerful, not less powerful and i welcome that. as someone who aspires to hold executive office, i like the idea of a powerful parliament holding the executive to account. it's something i have been doing myself. [laughter] >> mr. speaker, enjoy the last

short period in your office, but one of the most dramatic it has been and your choice of timing is incomparable and will be recorded in the history books of parliamentary democracy. mr. speaker, on behalf of the labour party, i thank you for your work and promoting democracy in this house. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org >> wns wednesday is the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. watch our live coverage in new york city. the moment of silence. the reading of the names and the ringing of the bell. at 9:00 a.m. eastern from the pentagon, a wreath-laying ceremony. live coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on crn span, and listen and live