Julian Lewis

9 Sep 2011 07:37:57

Liam Fox's Commons Baha Mousa statement in full

By Paul Goodman
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Here is the Defence Secretary's statement, and below are questions from Conservative MPs with his answers.  It's worth noting that Fox went out of his way to disagree with former serviceman Kris Hopkins - who features in Gazette this morning - that the incident was a dark day for the army as a whole, rather than for the individuals responsible.  Ministers usually strive to avoid disagreeing with colleagues on the floor of the Commons, and Fox is an extremely skilful performer in the Chamber.  That he felt he had to make the distinction reflects its importance to him (and I think he was right).

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9 Dec 2010 18:43:11

A full breakdown of who voted which way and who rebelled in tonight's votes

By Jonathan Isaby

Both divisions tonight - on increasing the upper tuition fees limit to £9,000 and on raising the cap on basic tuition fees to £6,000 - saw identical results: 323 votes in favour and 302 votes against.

Factoring in two tellers from each side, you had 325 MPs backing the Government line and 304 opposing it, meaning that 629 out of a possible 640 MPs participated in the divisions (the remaining ten are accounted for by the 5 Sinn Fein MPs, the Speaker, 3 Deputy Speakers and the vacancy in Oldham East and Saddleworth).

So who voted which way?

IN FAVOUR

Conservatives
297 of the 305 Conservative MPs, comprising:

  • All 77 Ministers and Whips
  • 39 PPSs (no longer including Lee Scott, who resigned to abstain)
  • 181 of the 189 backbenchers

Liberal Democrats
28 of the 57 Lib Dem MPs, comprising:

  • 17 of the 18 Ministers and Whips (Chris Huhne being at the conference in Cancun)
  • The 3 remaining PPSs (no longer including Mike Crockart and Jenny Willott, who resigned to vote against)
  • 8 of the 36 backbenchers (namely: Sir Alan Beith, Tom Brake, Malcolm Bruce, Don Foster, Stephen Gilbert, John Hemming, David Laws and David Ward)

AGAINST

  • 6 Conservative MPs (namely: Philip Davies, David Davis, Julian Lewis, Jason McCartney, Andrew Percy and Mark Reckless)
  •  21 Liberal Democrat MPs (namely: Annette Brooke, Sir Menzies Campbell, Mike Crockart, Tim Farron, Andrew George, Mike Hancock, Julian Huppert, Charles Kennedy, John Leech, Stephen Lloyd, Greg Mulholland, John Pugh, Alan Reid, Dan Rogerson, Bob Russell, Adrian Sanders, Ian Swales, Mark Williams, Roger WIlliams, Jenny Willott, Simon Wright)
  • All 253 Labour MPs
  • 7 of the 8 DUP MPs
  • All 6 SNP MPs
  • All 3 Plaid Cymru MPs
  • All 3 SDLP MPs
  • The 1 Alliance MP
  • The 1 Green MP
  • All 3 Independent MPs

ABSENT FROM THE VOTE (DELIBERATELY ABSTAINING OR OTHERWISE)

  • 2 Conservative MPs (namely: Tracey Crouch and Lee Scott)
  • 8 Liberal Democrat MPs (namely: Loreley Burt, Martin Horwood, Simon Hughes, Chris Huhne, Tessa Munt, Sir Robert Smith, John Thurso, Stephen Williams)
  • 1 DUP MP (William McCrea)

Of the six Tory rebels, most have quite a lot of "form" when it comes to walking through the lobbies against the Government line:

  • Philip Davies - Tonight's rebellions were his 26th and 27th rebellious votes
  • David Davis - Tonight's rebellions were his 13th and 14th rebellious votes
  • Julian Lewis - Tonight's rebellions were his 11th and 12th rebellious votes
  • Andrew Percy - Tonight's rebellions were his 13th and 14th rebellious votes
  • Jason McCartney - Tonight's rebellions were his 4th and 5th rebellious votes
  • Mark Reckless - Tonight's rebellions were his 11th and 12th rebellious votes

Of the two Tory abstainers, as a PPS until yesterday, Lee Scott, has no history of rebellion; meanwhile, Tracey Crouch, who also abstained, has still never actively voted in a division lobby against the government line.