By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Last night at least 32 Tory MPs (listed below) voted with Labour against an 88% hike in Britain's contribution to the IMF. The hike is to partly fund the IMF's ability to fund bailouts. I write "at least" because I've only quickly scanned the voting list. Please email tim@conservativehome.com […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Over on the NottsPolitics blog Professor Philip Cowley underlines the rebelliousness of backbench Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs since the formation of the Coalition. This graph confirms that this is the most rebellious intake since the second world war: Cowley notes: "Backbench dissent amongst government MPs is running at […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter Concerns from Tory MPs about the sentencing aspects of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill have been well covered, not least with Philip Davies' ConHome piece on the topic yesterday. He repeated those concerns in a speech during yesterday's Second Reading debate on the bill, and […]
MPs began debating the report stage of the Finance Bill yesterday, and voting did not finish until nearly 2am this morning. The most notable point is that there was a rebellion in favour of a new clause to provide for the transfer of personal income tax allowances between spouses. The new clause was tabled by […]
by Paul Goodman Follow Paul on Twitter. I asked recently whether Labour will join with Conservative Euro-sceptics in the Commons to stop bailouts to EU countries. The question was based on newspaper reports claiming that Ed Balls is aiming to achieve this outcome. I have done a bit of work on the numbers, and present […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter It is a few days shy of exactly one year since the first Commons division of this Parliament and with MPs currently enjoying the Whitsun recess, now seems an opportune moment to take stock of how rebellious Conservative MPs have been during this first year of the Parliament. There […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter We have already highlighted the result of the vote of yesterday's debate on the future use of the European Financial Stability Mechanism to bail out eurozone countries, which saw a rebellion by thirty Conservative MPs. As I explained yesterday afternoon, Mark Reckless MP proposed a motion that would have […]
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter. Wednesday 6am NB The original list as taken from the People's Pledge failed to include four of those who rebelled yesterday. They have now been added and highlighted. Apologies for the oversight. — Via The People's Pledge here are the Tory MPs who backed Mark Reckless against government attempts […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter Yesterday Mark Reckless MP wrote on ConHome about the motion he is putting before Parliament in backbench time this afternoon which would: "require the Government to place the European Financial Stability Mechanism on the agenda of the next meeting of the Council of Ministers or the European Council and […]
By Tim Montgomerie Jonathan Isaby is ConHome's student of rebellions but with him away I should record a small rebellion by Tory MPs against the use of the supplementary vote in the election of city mayors. Revolts.co.uk records the fact: "Not content with pronouncing AV dead for years to come following the decisive 'no' in […]
By Jonathan Isaby This afternoon sees two opposition day debates initiated by the Labour Party, on fuel prices and the NHS. The Lib Dems' objections to the current NHS Bill are well documented, but four Tory MPs have popped their heads above the parapet to indicate they have concerns too. An amendment to this afternoon's […]
By Jonathan Isaby I haven't done an overall audit of Tory backbench rebellions since before Christmas – two months ago – so with the Commons having broken up for its half-term recess yesterday, now seems a timely moment to take stock. For a while my friends in the Government Whips' Office have been taking issue […]
By Jonathan Isaby Yesterday afternoon, Tim noted that the House of Lords was standing its ground and had inflicted another defeat on the Government over retaining a 40% threshold in the Bill setting up the AV referendum for May 5th. The Bill then returned to the Commons, which again rejected their Lordships' amendment by 310 […]
By Jonathan Isaby Earlier in the week I concluded that of the 147 new Conservative MPs elected for the first time last year, those 38 who had been on the party's original "priority list" of 100 candidates were more likely to have been appointed parliamentary private secretaries. I have now taken a look at how […]