Why Tory MPs are so worked up about forced academisation

Tory MPs remain confident that they will force the government into a U-turn over forced academisation. Though departmental sources are pushing back against reports in today’s Financial Times that ministers are putting the brakes on the reforms, they cannot answer the question of how the changes would actually get through the House of Commons. And though David Cameron put up a spirited defence of the policy at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Tory MPs have been saying that they have yet to see the evidence base for forcing schools that may be perfectly successful and stable into changing the way they are run.

The reasons for the rebellion are partly down to the distaste that Conservatives have for trying to fix something that ain’t broke and for imposing policies on local authorities while preaching localism. But there is also another ingredient, which is that Tory MPs are just generally very ill-disciplined at the moment.