Boris Johnson is wrong if he thinks this week’s Tory rebellion on the tiered system marks the end of his party management problems. In fact, Tuesday night’s rebels tell me that the main purpose of the vote was to increase the likelihood that a good number of areas will be moved down a tier when the current allocations are reviewed on 16 December.
‘If there had just been 20 or 30 of us, the likelihood of getting lots of places moved would have been pretty small,’ explains one senior rebel. ‘But the fact that we surprised them with the strength of support makes it more likely, so those of us who rebelled have done our colleagues a favour.’
The whips did mount an operation, calling a last-minute meeting between the Prime Minister and the party an hour before the vote, and then stationing Johnson and chief whip Mark Spencer by the door to the ‘aye’ lobby in the Commons, which peeled off a few more MPs.
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