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February 4, 2014

Sally Bercow accuses The Sun of ‘shoddy journalism’ over front page snog picture

By Darren Boyle

Sally Bercow has blasted The Sun after the newspaper published pictures of her kissing a man under the headline “Must Tongue Sally”.

The 44-year-old wife of House of Commons speaker John Bercow took to Twitter in a bid to defend her reputation.

The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant was photographed wearing a brunette wig while involved in a "passionate clinch" with a man apparently inside a nightclub.

Bercow accused The Sun of taking the photographs “completely out of context” and accused the newspaper of “shoddy journalism” by failing to contact her before publication.

The newspaper insists it made several attempts to contact Bercow through her husband’s Westminster office.

According to The Sun, the incident happened outside the Number Five Cavendish Square nightclub in central London on Saturday night.

The newspaper said there was no indication Bercow left the club with the mystery man.

In 2011, Bercow was ordered to pay £15,000 to Lord McAlpine over her infamous "innocent face" tweet.

She posted the defamatory tweet two days after a Newsnight report last November which alleged a senior Tory politician was involved in child abuse.

Bercow settled the libel action brought by Lord McAlpine after the High Court found a tweet posted by her was highly defamatory.

Her posting appeared after the Newsnight report wrongly implicated the former Conservative Party treasurer in allegations of sex abuse at Bryn Estyn children's home in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mrs Bercow denied that the tweet – ''Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *Innocent face*'' – was defamatory, but Lord McAlpine said it pointed ''the finger of blame''.

Mr Justice Tugendhat agreed and said it meant McAlpine was a paedophile who was guilty of sexually abusing boys living in care.

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