How can MPs trust what ministers say after the Brexit fiasco of the past few days? That’s been the theme of the Commons emergency debate on the meaningful vote so far, with phrases like ‘shredded her credibility’ being bandied about. Initially, the most stinging criticism came from opposition MPs, but those MPs are not the usual suspects who chant blandly about how you can ‘never trust the Tories’. They’re senior backbenchers like Hilary Benn and Angela Eagle. And they speak for a large number of Tory MPs, too, who feel that there is little reason to trust what a minister or indeed a whip tells them.
Those Tory MPs range from Eurosceptic Bill Cash, who told the Commons that Theresa May had ‘reached the point of no return’ and was ‘clinging to the wreckage’ before her resignation, to Remainer Nicky Morgan, who suggested that a government of national unity might be in order.
This presented an immediate problem for Theresa May’s de facto deputy David Lidington, who was responding for the government in the debate.
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