Fate may have handed Speaker Bercow a lucky bounce in the shape of the Libdems’ expulsion last week of John Stephens

Curiouser and couriouser: Buckingham election contender John Stevens has been expelled by a Party of which he denies being a member.

The Slog has learned that the anti-Bercow Campaign for Democracy candidate in Buckingham was expelled by the Liberal Democrats last Thursday. This has to rank as one of the more bizarre elements in an increasingly surreal campaign to oust the Speaker: for Stevens describes himself as ‘a former Conservative MEP (1988-1999)’.

After this however, in 1999 he founded a breakaway grouping called the Pro-Euro Conservative Party. When this collapsed and was disbanded in December 2001, he wrote an article for The Independent announcing that “We have decided to join the Liberal Democrats”.

Yesterday Stevens was trying to put a different spin on things by counter-claiming that he had anyway resigned as a Liberal Democrat late last year. But this is at odds with the evidence that he allegedly paid his Party subscription during the January just gone.

The line-up for the Buckingham election now beggars belief. The four main candidates are:

* A former Tory Speaker widely expected last year to defect to New Labour, whose wife is in turn a Labour voter and member (Bercow).
* An existing anti-Europe European MP recently censured for an anti-Belgian tirade (Farage)
* A former Tory and then Pro-Europe founder just expelled by the Libdems heading up a Campaign for Democracy (Stevens)
* A former Lord High Sheriff and local figure campaigning hard despite a lack of any formal organisation – but using moonlighting Tory organisers who’ve been threatened with expulsion by David Cameron (Phillips).