Theresa May’s decision to “cook up” a deal with a Marxist her Government previously described as a threat to national security has not been going down well with grassroots Tories. At all.

There’s been a spate of membership cards being cut up – although of course this doesn’t officially cancel their membership. The Chairman of Canterbury Association has emailed his local members slamming May’s approach as “unedifying, infuriating and destructive in equal measure”:

A pertinent reminder for angry Tories considering giving their memberships the chop that there is a leadership election just round the corner…

Nick Boles told a shocked House of Commons he was quitting the Tories – seemingly because he was upset that the Government whipped hard against his amendment and in favour of their own policy and manifesto. Funny that…

Huw Merriman can be heard urging Boles not to go. Naturally the SNP applaud…

House of Commons indicative round II results were as follows:

(C) Customs Union AYES: 273 NOES: 276
(D) Common Market 2.0 AYES: 261 NOES: 282
(E) Confirmatory Public Vote AYES: 280 NOES: 292
(G) Parliamentary Supremacy AYES: 191 NOES: 292

And the winner was… May’s deal as per Friday with 286 votes in favour…

Dominic Grieve, Beaconsfield’s current Tory MP, lost a local constituency association confidence motion by 182 to 131 against him. The Beaconsfield Conservative Association chairman says that, “He remains our Conservative MP but I will be speaking as soon as possible to my fellow officers and the Executive Council.” A vote of no confidence is not a deselection.

Grieve is a decent man, we all agree, courageous even. To ignore your supporters and act against their wishes has consequences in a democracy. Deselections are always unpleasant, without them or at least the threat of them, MPs would be completely untethered from their supporters. MPs of all parties often arrogantly detest their activist members, who generally tend to be politically further away from the mainstream and their own ordinary voters. This tension is always there, sometimes the link snaps. This is such a time.

Grieve’s arrogance was that he thought he could shift from promising his members – in writing – that he would respect the outcome of the referendum, to leading the efforts to thwart Brexit, without cost. Breaking your word to voters, particularly the ones who get out the vote for you, is risky.

George Osborne tweeted this morning that Dominic Grieve had been “deselected”, going on to say “The Tory leadership can stop any deselection if it wants – we frequently did. CCHQ should suspend the local party. Otherwise we are heading for a huge, historic split in the Tory Party.” As a matter of fact Osborne has got it wrong, Grieve has not been deselected – yet. It is a bit rich Osborne, who has been campaigning to get rid of the leader of the Conservative Party since 2017, now calling for party unity. It is also more than galling when a Tory grandee says the little people who deliver leaflets, raise funds, vote for the party should be ignored and steam-rollered. Assuming of course that Osborne is still even a Conservative Party member…

UPDATE: Some groups like Leave.EU have been trying to claim the credit for Grieve’s deselection – local members strongly dispute the idea that they had anything to do with it, although Guido understands that the grassroots Campaign for Conservative Democracy was involved. A local Tory source tells Guido:

“Last night was a case of local members, most of whom have been members for years, finally getting organised and rising up. It has nothing to do with so-called “blue wave entryism” which isn’t even a thing. We’ve seen no real rise in membership numbers at all to suggest it could have any sort of impact.

“The principal reason Beaconsfield members voted against Grieve was that they felt he had been dishonest with them; promising at his last re-selection meeting to honour the referendum result, and then doing everything he could to thwart it. It’s his duplicity which has led to this motion passing.”

The PM might feel that she took a bit of a spanking from the Attorney General this morning. Which reminds Guido of an amusing anecdote. Back in 2000 defending Robin Peverett, (66), the former headmaster of Dulwich Prep Cranbrook, his barrister Geoffrey Cox said “What’s a little buttock fondling after all? It was all such a long time ago”.

“This sort of thing happened all the time in my school. It was a different era when headmasters considered themselves Gods, like barristers,” he added, dismissing a reporter who posed questions afterwards as someone who “went to a little comp somewhere.” Old school Tory…

Following the suspension of 14 Tory members yesterday over Islamophobic and racist remarks, Tory Chairman Brandon Lewis has written to the party’s most senior activists to “re-affirm my commitment that discrimination, intimidating behaviour or abuse of any kind has absolutely no place in our organisation”. The letter has gone to everyone at the most senior level of the voluntary party – Regional Chairmen, Area Chairmen, Association Chairman and Conservative Group Leaders. Swift action from the Tories…

Guido has obtained a copy of the email sent directly to the 14 Tory members who have been suspended today by Conservative Party Chairman Brandon Lewis’s office to for posting Islamophobic or racist comments online.

The suspended members are informed in no uncertain terms that they “may not participate in any Party events” and are “not entitled to represent the Conservative Party in any way” or “attend or participate in any events carried out in the name of the Party”. Summary justice undoubtedly, the Tories nevertheless showing Labour how to deal swiftly and unequivocally with racism…