Sky News says 91 Conservative MP vote against Lords Reform Bill. That's bigger than the EU referendum revolt. Have half of all Tory backbenchers failed to support the Government?
By Paul Goodman
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11.30pm Update List of Conservative MPs who opposed Second Reading:
- Adam Afriyie
- David Amess
- Steve Baker
- John Baron
- Guto Bebb
- Andrew Bingham
- Brian Binley
- Bob Blackman
- Nicola Blackwood
- Graham Brady
- Angie Bray
- Julian Brazier
- Andrew Bridgen
- Steve Brine
- Conor Burns
- Dan Byles
- Alun Cairns
- Bill Cash
- Christopher Chope
- James Clappison
- Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
- Geoffrey Cox
- Tracey Crouch
- Philip Davies
- David Davis
- Nick De Bois
- Caroline Dinenage
- Nadine Dorries
- Richard Drax
- George Eustice
- Mike Freer
- Richard Fuller
- Zac Goldsmith
- James Gray
- Andew Griffiths
- Richard Harrington
- Simon Hart
- Sir Alan Haselhurst
- Philip Hollobone
- Adam Holloway
- Stewart Jackson
- Bernard Jenkin
- Gareth Johnson
- Chris Kelly
- Eleanor Laing
- Dr Phillip Lee
- Edward Leigh
- Charlotte Leslie
- Dr Julian Lewis
- Ian Liddell-Grainger
- Peter Lilley
- Jonathan Lord
- Karen Lumley
- Jason McCartney
- Karl McCartney
- Anne McIntosh
- Anne Main
- Louise Mensch
- Patrick Mercer
- Penny Mordaunt
- James Morris
- Jesse Norman
- David Nuttall
- Matthew Offord
- Mark Pawsey
- Andrew Percy
- Christopher Pincher
- John Redwood
- Jacob Rees Mogg
- Simon Reevel
- Sir Malcolm Rifkind
- Laurence Robertson
- Andrew Rossindell
- David Ruffley
- Richard Shepherd
- Nicholas Soames
- Bob Stewart
- Rory Stewart
- Gary Streeter
- Graham Stuart
- Sir Peter Tapsell
- David Tredinnick
- Andrew Tyrie
- Charles Walker
- Robin Walker
- Bob Walter
- Chris White
- John Whittingdale
- Nadhim Zahawi
Tellers: Peter Bone and Craig Whittaker.
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The 91 figure comes from Sky News. It may not be quite right. But we can be sure that the revolt against the bill has beaten last autumn's 82 votes for a EU referendum.
So how big a proportion of Conservative backbenchers is 91?
Let's work on the assumption that there are roughly 207 Tory backbenchers. This is because there are 307 Conservative MPs in total. At least 80 serve as Commons Ministers or Whips. Add the Parliamentary Private Secretaries - there appears to be no complete record of them on the net - and one can't be far short of 100 members of the front bench.
So 91 is well over a third of all backbenchers and approaching half - 103 or so.
But wait. 91 is just the number that voted against the bill. There will be abstentions as well. So it's more likely than not that if one adds votes against to abstentions over half of all Tory backbenchers failed to support it.
And since some Ministers will have held their noses and voted for the bill it's fair to say that there's no consensus for it among the 307 Conservative MPs.
PPS Conor Burns resigned from the Government this afternoon and PPS Angie Bray has been sacked for voting against the bill.
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