What does “I’m a lip speaker rather than lip reader” mean?
Solution 1:
A lipspeaker is a professional figure, who in this case helped John Bercow to form an opinion based on professional advice:
A lipspeaker is a hearing person who has been professionally trained to be easy to lipread. Lipspeakers reproduce clearly the shapes of the words and the natural rhythm and stress used by the speaker.
A lipspeaker may be asked to use their voice, using clear communication techniques, thus enabling the lipreader to benefit from any residual hearing.
Solution 2:
From the same article, further on, we have the answer supplied by the journalist Andrew Sparrow
Bercow repeatedly said he consulted lipspeakers, not lipreaders.
What is the difference? Lipspeakers are hearing people who can read lips. Lipreaders are people who are deaf or hard of hearing with the same skill.