Interesting story in the Sun this morning that Boris is considering changing his mind about a third term as London mayor and may run again in 2016. Not even BoJo’s biggest fan would take past assurances that this would be his final term too seriously. This is Boris after all. Looking ahead there is a clear road to Downing Street. If Cameron is still Prime Minister after 2015, as Labour are clearly determined to make happen, that would obviously dash Boris’ hopes of becoming leader post-election. Boris wouldn’t want to serve in a Dave Cabinet, so running for a third term as Mayor would keep him on the front line. Then, in the run up to 2020, the handover would make perfect sense. It could be Blair and Brown all over again…

The first PMQs after the holiday was never going to be easy for Ed Miliband:

Never underestimate the power of the last word…

Coffee House reports that Jesse Norman’s abstention in last week’s Syria vote has cost him his job on the Number 10 policy board. Given Dave forgave Justine Greening and Mark Simmonds for their Rwandan discussions that’s quite a slap down. Guido returned to Westminster wiser after reading Jesse’s Edmund Burke biography this summer. He’ll be back…

Last night a Tory MP told Guido:

“PM has so many enemies in the party, they saw this as the perfect opportunity to humiliate him. I still don’t think he understands this. Number 10 thinks its barbecues are the answer but it makes no difference.”

So what has Cameron decided to do this afternoon? Hold a barbecue for Tory MPs at Chequers, of course. That just about sums up how far out of touch he is from his own backbenchers…

Dave absolves Greening of blame, saying it was a technical issue and he has accepted her apology. Presumably there were technical issues with all the other Tory MPs and ministers who didn’t turn up as well. On whether Miliband behaved dishonourably: “it’s up to him to defend how he behaves”. Ed meanwhile says “I don’t think the Government should wash its hands of this issue”. Perhaps he will send Assad a strongly worded letter.

The number of Tory MPs to rebel was more than double the majority Dave lost his vote by, as was the number of Tory MPs who abstained or did not bother to show up to yesterday’s vote. Guido imagines that their excuses will be tested heavily today as the Whips and Downing Street try to work out how they got it so spectacularly wrong. Here is the full list:

Adam Afriyie
Henry Bellingham
Graham Brady
William Cash
Christopher Chope
Kenneth Clarke
Geoffrey Cox
Nadine Dorries
Alan Duncan
David Gauke
Justine Greening
Alan Haselhurst
Chris Kelly
Pauline Latham
Edward Leigh
Charlotte Leslie
Ian Liddell-Grainger
Jack Lopresti
Anne Main
Jesse Norman
James Paice
Priti Patel
John Redwood
Andrew Rosindell
David Ruffley
Mark Simmonds
Rory Stewart
David Tredinnick
Andrew Tyrie
Bill Wiggin
Tim Yeo

There are some obvious names on there for ill-health but some notable future leadership wannabes like Adam Afriyie, Jesse Norman, Rory Stewart are Priti Patel stick out. As does Justine Greening’s deputy at International Development Alan Duncan. Greening is in all sorts of trouble for “not hearing” the division bell, but it looks even weirder that her junior minister did not turn up either. It sounds like a series of cock-ups rather than anything coordinated though. Stewart – who advises the PM on foreign policy, Norman who is on the PM’s policy board and Ministers like Duncan and Guake will be joining Greening on the naughty step.