The embattled Commons boss said: “I think it is a safe rule of thumb that people should not mimic other people, let's debate the issues, play the ball rather than the man or the woman” – after a Welsh MP complained his was mocked for his accent.
It came as he was branded a "hypocrite" last night after it emerged he will personally host an anti-bullying event in Parliament today.
Despite his Speaker's Office being named in an independent inquiry into the bullying of staff in the Commons, he will pose for photos for the event outside his grace and favour Speaker's House.
But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen slammed the move as “breathtaking hypocrisy even by Westminster standards.” The Cox inquiry last month highlighted the Speaker’s Office as part of the “senior House administration” which should be replaced in order to tackle the bullying culture.
Yesterday Mr Bercow told MPs: "Personal mockery of one another and members come in all shapes and sizes with a wide diversity of accents, national origins and ways of speaking, is wrong and to many people it constitutes a form of bullying.
"I am the last person to depreciate good humour in the way in which we interact, I may on occasion myself have caused offence by my extraordinarily ineffective mimicry for which I apologise.
"I have been known to seek to imitate the Father of the House (Ken Clarke) who has been a friend of mine for well over 20 years.
"As I say my efforts at imitating him are usually feeble and they've always been undertaken in a friendly spirit.
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