Commons chaos as the Tories fall apart

The government chaos continues. On Wednesday morning, Tory MPs were told that Labour’s motion to force a vote on a bill to ban fracking was a confidence motion in Truss’s government. Whips were determined not to give Labour control of the order paper. There would be no ifs or buts – all Tory MPs had to vote with the government to block it. Then as the debate ahead of the vote neared its end, No. 10 started to have doubts – with a number of MPs going public to say they would rebel. Climate minister Graham Stuart then told the Commons: ‘Quite clearly this is not a confidence vote.’

This led to widespread confusion. Reports of drama and bad blood in the voting lobbies emerged – with ministers accused of manhandling MPs in a bid to get them to vote with the government. The chief whip Wendy Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker were reported to have resigned in protest at being undermined (as Isabel reports, Whittaker was overheard swearing in the voting lobby) powers above.