Is Rishi Sunak facing a Scottish rebellion?

The Chancellor will be anxiously preparing himself this evening for tomorrow’s papers, waiting to see how his Budget lands. He won’t need to wait quite as long to hear how his own party members have received it, however. And the verdict is already in from the Scottish Tories. It isn’t good. Jeremy Hunt’s decision to extend the energy profits levy, which taxes the profits of oil and gas companies, to 2029 has left Scotland’s Tory MPs furious. Never mind bad press, might the Chancellor have inadvertently landed a Tory rebellion in Sunak’s in-tray?

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross was the first to hit out by announcing that he will not vote with the government to pass the legislation. Ross said that he has been left ‘deeply disappointed’ by the announcement, that it ‘is a step in the wrong direction’ and how he ‘will continue to urge the Chancellor to reconsider’. Not that he hasn’t done that enough already – it is understood that Ross has had a number of conversations with senior Tory figures in recent days, pleading that he didn’t go ahead with the extension. He