Bercow urges Twitter users to 'behave more responsibly' Sir Edward Garner QC, for Lord McAlpine, said, 'By her Tweet, Mrs Bercow identified the claimant as the senior Conservative figure dominating the news at that time, and, as a result, alleged that Lord McAlpine was a paedophile who was guilty of sexually abusing boys living in care. The allegation was completely without foundation, as Mrs Bercow and those involved in the original Newsnight programme accept. 'Mrs Bercow's allegation and the way it spread like wildfire on social media caused Lord McAlpine great distress and embarrassment.' After the hearing, Andrew Reid, Lord McAlpine's solicitor, hit out at Bercow in a statement: 'Our client had never wanted the situation to get to this stage. It is to be hoped that lessons will be learned: this litigations could so easily have been avoided if common sense had prevailed over political positioning. 'In January of this year, Lord McAlpine made a 'without prejudice' offer to Mrs Bercow to settle at a substantially lower sum than his leading counsel...advised that he was likely to obtain if the matter went to full trial. He made the offer in an attempt to avoid the detrimental effect of litigation on his health, but sadly Mrs Bercow was not prepared at the relevant time to avail herself of this reasonable offer. While Mrs Bercow enjoys the benefit of a CFA and some protective insurance attached to it, we estimate at this stage that, including the payment of damages that she has now made (and which has been sent on to charity), she will find herself substantially out of pocket. It is now a legal requirement that if Mrs Bercow does re-activate her Twitter account, she must formally issue on it the apology that she finally committed herself to make. The wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons will hope that her apology marks the end of an embarrassing legal saga. On November 2, 2012, Newsnight broadcast a report about the historic sexual abuse of boys in Welsh care homes, during the 1970s and 1980s. The item alleged that 'a leading Conservative politician from the Thatcher years' had been involved, but declined to name the figure in question, triggering fevered speculation. Two days later, Bercow tweeted 'Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*', and was successfully sued for libel by the ageing peer.