Is Brandon Lewis / Julian Lewis excuse that they didn’t know he was paired with pregnant Jo Swinson last night believable? Not really. The Tory party chairman abstained for seven of the nine votes – the whips told him he was not needed for the seven where the government didn’t need every last vote. For the two votes that were on a knife-edge, Brandon voted with the government. Did the whips really not know he was paired with an absent pregnant MP? Swinson isn’t buying it, she says the excuse is “literally not credible”.

Just how low will your govt stoop @theresa_may? When @andrealeadsom delayed proxy voting motions, she *assured* those of us who were pregnant that we would be paired when necessary. Today your govt broke that agreement – @BrandonLewis paired with me but voted. Desperate stuff. pic.twitter.com/CcgF7z8MOV

— Jo Swinson (@joswinson) July 17, 2018

Tory chief whip Julian Smith has offered this apology:

Jo I am v sorry-I spoke to your CW earlier. A mistake – we pair consistently 4 pregnancy pairs – @BrandonLewis was asked to vote in error. https://t.co/BYRmprapGn

— Julian Smith MP (@JulianSmithUK) July 17, 2018

As has Brandon, but he has declined to answer Swinson’s request for a further explanation:

Really? So what happened then? Take me through it.

— Jo Swinson (@joswinson) July 17, 2018

There is talk that other paired Tories were pressured to break their promises too…