Ministers avoid awkward vote on foreign criminals as Tories rebel on press damages plan

The Crime and Courts Bill, which contains one half of the government’s response to the Leveson recommendations, has just passed its third reading in the House of Commons.

An earlier amendment on exemplary damages, which the Mail’s James Chapman reports this evening has roused the ire of Boris Johnson, saw this group of Conservative rebels troop through the ‘No’ lobbies: Richard Bacon, Christopher Chope, Tracey Crouch, Philip Davies, Richard Drax, Nick de Bois, Andrew Percy, Mark Reckless, John Redwood, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Andrew Turner, Martin Vickers, Charles Walker and Sarah Wollaston.

The amendment passed 530 ayes to 13 noes (the list above includes tellers Rees-Mogg and Drax, who are not listed in the initial division numbers). Many of those MPs had expressed their concerns about the proposals for press regulation either in the debate or in public. But there are others who have criticised the legislation who didn’t rebel: one Tory texted me this evening saying ‘this IS statute’, and others expressed concerns at a meeting of the Parliamentary party this evening (Kiran Stacey has a report on his FT blog).