No prizes for guessing who has been centre of attention in the Commons chamber this week: Speaker John Bercow who resembles one of those poor football referees who thinks he’s more important than the players.

The level of esteem in which the Speaker is held among some of his former Tory colleagues was all too plain to see on Tuesday when he clashed with health minister Simon Burns at Question Time.

After Mr Bercow had admonished Mr Burns a second time for failing to face forwards at the despatch box and speak into the microphone, the minister was heard to call him “a stupid, sanctimonious dwarf”.

It was hardly parliamentary language, but the two have a history of dislike for each other.

When Ian Paisley Jnr asked later whether it was in order for a minister to “berate, scoff, scold and hiss at the Chair”, Mr Bercow made sure that the insult would never go into the official report.

“On this point, I must say that nothing was recorded,” he said, making it absolutely clear that nothing should appear in Hansard the following day.

Mr Burns’s comment was duly replaced with the word “Interruption”, frequently used by Hansard to cover a multitude of sins.

The minister was reprimanded by Ronnie Corbett for the sizeist bit of his comment.

“What a cruel remark it was. We live in the same world, Bercow and me – not big enough to play James Bond, not small enough to be adopted by Madonna.”

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Immediately after Prime Minister’s Questions and in front of a packed chamber on Wednesday the Speaker upbraided Home Secretary Theresa May for briefing the media about an immigration announcement before it had been made to MPs.

Instead of giving a yellow card to the new Home Secretary with a quiet word in her ear, Mrs May was forced into a grovelling apology about a practice which was overlooked time and time again by Mr Bercow and his predecessor, Michael Martin, when Labour ministers were involved before the election.

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The Speaker has extended his overbearing self-importance from the Commons chamber to the Church of England.

Mr Bercow, who exasperates MPs with his constant advice to them to behave themselves and keep quiet in the chamber, has vetoed the Church’s recommendation for the role of Speaker’s Chaplain.

The chaplain is traditionally appointed by the Dean of Westminster Abbey, which administers St Margaret’s Church (the MPs’ church) situated between the Houses of Parliament and the Abbey.

The Dean, Dr John Hall, favoured the appointment of Canon Andrew Tremlett, Canon of Bristol Cathedral, but Mr Bercow has chosen the Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, a Jamaican-born vicar whose parish is in Hackney, East London.

A spokesman for the Speaker said: “We did not want yet another predictable, middle-aged, white man who is like a mini-Archbishop of Canterbury.”

Mr Bercow is demonstrably middle-aged and white, and he’s certainly more pious than the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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“I agree with Nick” became an internet catchphrase after the first of the televised debates during the general election campaign.

But David Cameron has made it clear he doesn’t always see eye to eye with his coalition partner and prime ministerial deputy.

Mr Clegg happily signed an “I agree with Nick” Lib Dem election placard to be auctioned at Shrewsbury School tomorrow for the Limbless Association.

Mr Cameron signed too, but added the words “most of the time”.