The coalition’s backbenchers have already proven the most rebellious of any government. There have already been — by my count, adding the 239 rebellions up to the end of April listed in Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart’s Bumper Book of Coalition Rebellions to the eight listed on the Public Whip since then — 247 votes on which at least one Tory or Lib Dem backbencher has cast their vote against the government whip. That’s not quite the most of any parliament — there were 309 against Wilson and Callaghan in the 1974-79 parliament, 259 against Blair from 2001 to 2005, and 365 against Blair and Brown in the last parliament — but then this one’s just over two years in. There have been rebellions in 42 per cent of Commons votes since the last election, far more than the 28 per cent from 2005 to 2010.
And tonight, we’ll see rebellion number 248 on the programme motion on the House of Lords Reform Bill.
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