Word reaches Guido of a large swathe of fury from Tory MPs now being directed at the Chief Whip Mark Spencer over the Owen Paterson farce. One senior MP tells Guido that Boris has “blown up” the Chief Whip’s credibility during the farce, with the sacking and re-appointment of Angela Richardson being the cherry on top of the cake. There’s now a view swirling around a chunk of the party that the actions of the last two days have undermined the credibility of the Chief Whip and the integrity of three-line whipping as a whole; pointing out that from now on if enough Tory MPs break the supposedly strict whip they’ll be able to force a policy u-turn and keep their jobs. The PM’s PPSs aren’t escaping the chaos smelling of roses either…
Lots of Tory PPSs are fuming at this letter from Mark Spencer which they think is insulting. Basically the Chief is reminding them that they are on the lowest rung and are expected to shut up and do as they are told. They were also reminded not to leak…
Last week Guido congratulated new intake Tory MP Rob Roberts for bravely coming out to the world on International Day Against Homophobia. Since becoming an MP, the 41 year-old married father has thrown caution to the wind and himself into Westminster’s thriving gay scene. Guido now learns the MP’s late night antics have created so much drama that the Chief Whip has had to get involved after an incident with a young male staffer. Guido understands the incident has also been raised with Parliament’s Independent Complaints body…
One theory doing the rounds among Brexiteers this morning is that the whips engineered the loss of the Grieve amendment – it is notable that 25 Tory MPs voted for it compared to just two on the other two amendments. Chief whip Julian Smith, according to one Tory MP, had a smile on his face when the amendment passed and the whips did little or nothing to pressure MPs regarding it. Is this a Machiavellian tool to encourage Brexiteers to back May’s deal?
Look at it from the the Remain-backing chief whip’s point of view – while it has no more force of law than a debate at the Oxford Union, it does give the whips an opportunity to frighten Tory MPs, “look old boy if you don’t fall into line, Grieve’s lot will force us into a second referendum or, worse still, a general election”. These are febrile times, nothing would surprise Guido…
Chief whip Julian Smith has just emailed Tory MPs putting them on a three line whip for Tuesday afternoon. No explanation has been given.
Dear colleague
Please be advised that the whip on Tuesday will now be a three-line whip from 12:30pm. All colleagues should be on the estate and available.
Many thanks for your cooperation.
Julian
Sajid Javid’s Commons debate on anti-Semitism is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. Unless the PM now thinks she has the numbers for a retrospective vote on Syria…
UPDATE: Senior government source says “no change in our position” but a second government source says they are planning for a retrospective vote on Syria.
