‘Shouldn’t we just go home?’ the SNP’s Pete Wishart asked Sir George Young this evening after the Leader of the House revealed the government was dropping its programme motion on the House of Lords. ‘You know it’s all over. They know it’s all over,’ he added.
But they didn’t go home, and the Commons has just voted in favour of the second reading 462 votes to 162. Early reports suggest that there were 86 Conservative MPs who defied the whip, which would make this the biggest rebellion in this parliament.
Nick Clegg paused from trying very hard not to grimace on the front bench to cheer as Mark Harper told the chamber shortly before the division that this legislation belonged to the coalition. But the speeches from MPs throughout the evening gave a very different message.
Conor Burns resigned as parliamentary private secretary to Owen Paterson, leaving the Northern Ireland Secretary looking for a new aide for the second time in eight months (the first, Stewart Jackson, resigned so he could rebel on the backbench motion on Europe in October). Burns told MPs: ‘I face a dilemma tonight that I have finally resolved in my mind. I cannot support this Bill at second reading. I couldn’t look myself in the eye if I voted for this Bill at second reading, and clearly that is incompatible with membership of Her Majesty’s Government.’ Later, Angie Bray confirmed she had been sacked as a PPS after rebelling, too.
Rory Stewart brought colleagues back from the tearooms and bars in Parliament to listen to his warnings about trying ‘to change constitutional law as though it is ordinary law’. He demanded that ‘constitutional change in the future happens only through referendum’.
This evening’s vote opens the way for what the BBC’s James Landale described as ‘an orgy of parliamentary warfare’ (and it’s well worth reading his blog on what that warfare will look like). The Tory rebels are triumphant that they have kicked Lords reform into the long grass, as James blogged earlier, and shot down the Liberal Democrat dove, as Fraser blogged.
Remarkably their pro-reform colleagues on both sides of the Coalition are still taking heart, and claim to be confident that the legislation will eventually be a success. I spoke to Jake Berry, one of the leaders on the Tory side of the pro-reform group, this evening, and he said:
‘In terms of the long grass, that’s not really what I believe will happen. I think supporters will have the opportunity to improve the bill and get others on board in support of the legislation.’
Berry believes that concerns that some of his colleagues hold about the primacy of the Commons over the Lords can be addressed in the next few months, which will whittle down the number of rebels. Meanwhile Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott tells me:
‘They hope it’s in the long grass but it won’t be if a progressive majority in the Commons comes together as on Leveson.’
But that record-breaking rebellion, a resignation of a PPS and the sacking of another, and the failure to even push the programme motion makes today a bruising day for the government. David Cameron will be mindful of the briefings the Liberal Democrats were dishing out of the weekend that this was a test for his leadership. It won’t be long before those sources deliver their verdict. And his own party is growing more, not less, rebellious.
UPDATE: Paul Waugh has the list of the 91 rebels over on his blog.This beats October’s EU referendum rebellion. But it’s not the largest post-war rebellion: have a look at Jonathan Jones’ blog on this subject.
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