There is a growing Tory backlash against Health minister Jane Ellison over her plain pack ambush. “Four letter word, starts in S and ends in T” was the ringing endorsement of one colleague, “she is not a Conservative” claims another, whilst another simply added “she’s a wrong ‘un”. One Tory MP even claims:

“It challenges the imagination that such a grubby little measure could come from members of a party who only 25 years ago waged the moral battle of ideas against Communism heralding the freedom of individuals to choose. Now they have morphed from noble liberators to little nannies.”

The Bill will pass with support of Labour and the Liberal Democrats, though Guido hears that Ellison may not have the last laugh. Not only will there be a huge rebellion on the right, plans for a very well funded campaign to unseat her in her marginal south-west London seat of Battersea are already afoot, with a freedom-loving candidate being sought. Applications on the back of a fag packet…