LONDON — Britain’s mostly right-wing newspapers branded parliamentary Speaker John Bercow an obnoxious, despotic traitor on Tuesday after his bombshell ruling threw the Brexit process into disarray.

After Bercow ruled MPs could not vote again on the EU divorce deal unless it was substantially changed, newspapers labeled him the “Brexit Destroyer” and a “preening egotist” bent on stopping Britain leaving.

But editorials in the more pro-EU papers said the dramatic situation, 10 days out from Britain’s scheduled departure date, was entirely Prime Minister Theresa May’s fault and Bercow had been right to assert parliamentary primacy over of the 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union.

The Daily Mail’s front page was a picture of Bercow grinning, with the headline: “Smirk that says: Brexit be damned.”

Its parliamentary sketch said: “Me, me, me... the twitchy windbag was at his despotic worst.”

And its editorial said Bercow, 56, was reveling in a “brazen act of sabotage... detonating this bombshell at the most inconvenient and sensitive moment.”

The paper called him a “preening egotist” and “committed Remainer”.

Blocking a fresh vote on the deal “would ensure that our national trauma goes on and on”.

Losing the chance to deliver Brexit and begin healing Britain’s wounds due to “one man’s overweening vanity would be a perversion of our democracy”.

The Sun, which considers Bercow an “odious slug”, said: “Remainers have their reward for keeping the most obnoxious, discredited and shameless Commons speaker in his job.”

Bercow “scuppered the only one on the table with his most disgraceful abuse of power yet.

“May is having to fight a Remain majority AND a bent referee”, the tabloid said.

The Daily Express’s front page called Bercow “The Brexit Destroyer”.

“Bercow stoops low with this Brexit ambush,” its editorial said.

“Could John Bercow be the most treacherous speaker ever?

“As a political act, it was maliciously timed.

“Bercow’s political vanity has sent a wrecking ball crashing into the most important political process in decades. For that he must be condemned.”

The broadsheets took a more measured tone.

The Financial Times front page said: “May’s Brexit hits block as Bercow rules out third vote on same deal”.

The Daily Telegraph’s read: “‘A major constitutional crisis’.”

It said that as things stand, “May’s deal is effectively dead and the UK is leaving the EU next week. More drama lies ahead.”

Meanwhile The Times said the best option was for parliament to endorse the deal in a vote next week.

Elsewhere, The Guardian, headlined “Brexit chaos as speaker stops May in her tracks”, said Bercow was correct to exert the right of parliament over a referendum.

“It is time to stop the prime minister playing a game of chicken with the future of the country,” it said.

“If the risks are high for the speaker, they are higher for Mrs May. She could lose her Brexit deal and lose power. She only has herself to blame.”

The Daily Mirror, which supports the opposition Labour Party, said May was stuck, her plan was a shambles and it was all her fault for taking two years to produce a flawed deal and then being unable to persuade her own Conservative MPs to back it.

“Humiliated May is a PM without power,” it said. — AFP