The government won the fracking vote – but underlined the chaos under Truss

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Maybe you’ve heard of a three-line whip – it means the vote is a serious one, and not voting the right way could mean having the whip withdrawn. Yesterday morning, however, Tory deputy chief whip Craig Whittaker stepped things up a notch and warned that the voting down an opposition day motion put forward by Labour – attempting to take control of the parliamentary agenda to force through a bill banning fracking – was a “100% hard” three-line whip and a vote of confidence in the government (which, Labour pointed out, should lead to the Prime Minister’s resignation or the dissolution of parliament if the government loses the vote).

When does a three-line whip become a ‘100% hard’ one? Seemingly, it is when MPs have to be physically bounced into voting the right way. After making clear that they were intending to defy the party line, Conservative MPs asked minister Graham Stuart whether it was still a confidence vote. He indicated that it was not. When voting began at 7pm – and after Suella Braverman was forced to resign as Home Secretary – chaos erupted. Ministers were accused of manhandling MPs into the government’s voting lobbies; scenes that longstanding Tory backbencher Charles Walker described as a “pitiful reflection on the Conservative Party at every level”.

Reports emerged amid the kerfuffle that Tory chief whip Wendy Morton had resigned. Deputy chief whip Whittaker – who sent the “100% hard” three-line whip warning in the morning – was then heard coming out of the lobby saying: “I am fucking furious and I don’t give a fuck any more.” Labour MP Chris Bryant subsequently raised a point of order alleging that senior Tories were “bullying” their backbenchers – on a vote, remember, that simply would have taken the Conservative Party one step closer to living up to its 2019 manifesto commitment of a moratorium on fracking.

No 10 later insisted that nobody had quit. A statement released at 1.30am said: “The Prime Minister has full confidence in the chief and deputy chief whip. Throughout the day, the whips had treated the vote as a confidence motion. The minister at the despatch box was told, mistakenly, by Downing Street to say that it was not.” Well, that clears that up.

The government defeated the motion – but, of course, the damage had already been done; the vote betrayed a ruling party deeply at odds with itself. 40 Conservative MPs defied the whip by abstaining on the confidence/not confidence vote in the end. No 10 said in the early hours of the morning that “Conservative MPs were fully aware” of the three-line whip, and that those “those without a reasonable excuse for failing to vote with the government can expect proportionate disciplinary action”.

The parliamentary high drama is set to continue today. Labour has an urgent question, expected around 10.30am. Yvette Cooper will ask the new Home Secretary – Grant Shapps – to make a statement on the departure of Braverman. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer is addressing TUC Congress, telling the annual gathering of the trade union federation that “the Labour choice is a Britain that is fairer, greener and more dynamic”.

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