Last night's vote on the Opposition motion on Heathrow was closer than many people thought, with more than two dozen Labour MPs voting with the Conservatives in the lobby to oppose a third runway.
But one loyalist Labour MP is claiming today that he meant to vote with the Tories but accidentally ended up supporting the Government in the crunch vote.
Step forward Martin Linton, the Labour MP for Battersea since 1997, who currently enjoys a majority of, er, 163.
He has posted an incredible account on his website explaining how he managed to walk through the lobby with all his Labour coleagues, instead of the one full of Tories, Lib Derms and the Labour rebels.
It's on his website, but I reproduce it here for your persual:
"This is a mix-up for which I am entirely responsible. I was expecting two votes and instead of voting for an Opposition motion on the first vote I was going to vote against a Government motion for a third runway on the second vote. But the Opposition decided not to call the second vote.
"I now wish I had taken my opportunity of voting against the runway on the first vote and I feel not a little embarrassed at the confusion this has caused, but I can only say that I remain against a third runway and I shall not miss an opportunity to vote against if one comes up.
"I lobbied the Aviation Minister and the Transport Minister and went with a group of London MPs to see the Prime Minister twice to try to persuade them against any increase in flights into Heathrow and we were successful in persuading them to drop the idea of all-day flights. This would have meant an increase in flights over Battersea and an end to the system of runway alternation, which gives people under each flightpath a break of eight hours each day without aircraft landing overhead.
"I think there is still a chance of persuading the Government to drop the third runway and I shall certainly keep trying. It is not due to be started until 2015 and it has to go through a long planning inquiry first, and then it has to meet noise and pollution targets that are so high that some people think they may never be met.
"The first vote was on a Conservative motion to ask the Government to ‘think again’ and the second vote would have been on a Government amendment supporting the third runway, which I would have opposed. Only the first was put to the vote and was defeated by 19 votes."
Mr Linton has been an MP for nearly twelve years, yet claims he managed to get confused when it came to the vote. Do we believe it was a mix-up or were the Government that worried about losing the vote that he sacrificed his principles for them?
